This was a great weekend for buggy: fair weather, clean(er) roads, and Mini Raceday. If you are reading this post you are probably already familiar with the concept of Mini Raceday and all that it entails, but if you stumbled upon cmubuggy.org through a fluke of the internet, let us explain (because we wouldn’t want this to be the confusing post). Despite what the name implies, extra small buggies with Thumbelina-sized drivers did not zip around the course this weekend. What actually happened was that freeroll (crosswalk to Hill 3) and backhills runs were timed by Sweepstakes and others (Ed the Sweepstakes chair, Guochen ass’t chair, and Matteo a SDC mechanic). The organizations with the fastest men’s and women’s teams then receive bragging rights, congratulatory back slaps, and a fabulous mystery prize from Sweepstakes. This year the fastest freeroll went to PiKA, fastest men’s backhills to SDC, fastest women’s backhills to CIA, and fastest overall time to SDC. The prize has yet to be announced by Sweepstakes. Probably because they don’t know what it is yet. The times are summarized in a table at the bottom of the report. In the end, the point of Mini Raceday is to simply get an official gauge of where the teams stand at this point in the year. However a lot can happen in the spring semester.

Mini Raceday excitement aside, it was an all-around good weekend of rolls. Saturday 6 teams made it out; 7 if you count Robobuggy. We only had one stop on Saturday which was due to a flagging malfunction, and there were no other incidents. Sunday saw all 11 teams rolling, many with a large fleet. Obviously this was to get timing data on as many buggies/drivers as possible, but it did slow things down a bit. Sunday was a fairly clean day. One driver had a spin at the top of the freeroll, but both driver and buggy were uninjured. Also, one SDC driver had a slight issue with one chute turn, but came to a complete stop before any collisions.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• AEPi – Rolling just this Sunday, AEPi had a solid day of rolls. Still working on a new buggy, Kamikaze was representing the brothers. While there is significant room for improvement on the freeroll time, the backhills go by relatively fast with the pushers the frat has recruited. If they can get a new buggy out this spring, AEPi could be competitive again.
• Apex – Phoenix and Ember both made appearances this weekend. While Phoenix is taking fairly wide, and consequently slow chute turns, Ember is picking up more and more speed as the semester continues. They are continue to work on the build of a new buggy, which may be out and rolling this spring semester.
• CIA – Rolling 4 buggies on Saturday and 5 on Sunday, CIA was out in full force this weekend. Equinox continues to get spectacular rollouts with the rest of the pack not too far behind. The team has really come a long way in terms of fleet and technology in the last 10 years and are among the top 4 teams competing. This week it seemed that each driver was testing out their own favorite chute path which varies from sharp and tight to wider and looser. A couple drivers were still nailing the manhole cover at the beginning of the chute which simply can’t feel good.
• Fringe – Rolling with 3 buggies both Saturday and Sunday of this weekend, Fringe had another strong and clean day of rolls. The overall consistency of the chute line seems to have picked up as the buggies mostly found the same line from roll to roll. There was a bit of excitement on Saturday when a chute flagger mistakenly threw a stop flag. Bissa immediately tried to break and turn early to avoid the chute. Fortunately the driver came to a complete stop before hitting any hay bales.
• PhiDelt – PhiDelt continues to trudge along, completing clean, but rather slow rolls. At this point in time we are not sure if the lack of speed is the result of no or a weak Hill 2 sendoff, or if Perun is just slow. Either way, we hope to see some significant improvement in the following semester.
• PiKA – Both Banshee and Raptor were out rolling this weekend. Banshee continued to be one of the fastest buggies on the course and managed some truly impressive rollouts. Her driver seems to have found the sweet spot for chute lines as there was considerably less skidding this weekend. Although Raptor continues to look a little rough, she has made considerable improvement in speed since last week.
• SDC – SDC was out with fewer buggies than expected this weekend with only 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Regardless, they continue to be one of the fastest orgs rolling. While a few of the rolls still included a drifting chute turn, SDC seems to be working on their lines. Avarice ended rolls a bit early on Sunday when the driver appeared to have lost control just before the chute and started a spin. For a moment it looked as though she might regain control but eventually met with the hay bales. The driver was extracted on the course and seemed to have been alright.
• SigEp – Still rolling with Kraken and Pandora, SigEp wasn’t breaking any speed records this weekend. The drivers have mastered maneuvering these buggies, but are starting to feel the need for speed. During one roll Pandora slowed to the point of a mid-chute pick up. Given how competitive SigEp has been in the last few years, we hope they get a new buggy up and rolling soon. We did get to see Barracuda return to the course briefly on Sunday, but after nosing into the curb just after hill 2 on her first roll, they decided to give the new driver at least another week to figure things out in the safety of their house. The buggy also seemed to be sporting a rather different looking hatch…

• SigNu – Oh hey, SigNu! Out and getting their time for Mini Raceday, Krait was rolling. While they aren’t the fastest team traversing the course, SigNu manages some speed with every roll. It’s hard to say too much about the org as they don’t make many appearances at rolls, but hopefully in the spring semester we will see them much more.
• Spirit – Spirit had a decent showing this weekend bringing out Inviscid, Zuke, Seraph, and Fuko. Fuko has made great progress since her debut just a few weeks ago. Her driver is looking strong as she goes around the course. Seraph, Inviscid, and Fuko were again quite the speedsters taking slightly wide chute turns with some really impressive rollouts. All-in-all it seemed like a good weekend of rolls for Spirit.
• Robo – Transistor was out and rolling both Saturday and Sunday of this weekend. Sadly, I do not think that its freeroll time was taken. Regardless, it’s great to see them out and adding a little more of a CMU-nerd factor to Buggy.

Official Sweepstakes Times 

Tune in on Thursday for exciting bonus speed data collected and processed by several of our esteemed alumni.