With last week being CMU’s spring break, we’ve been going through some serious buggy withdrawal for two weekends in a row. This past Saturday saw 7 teams and 17 buggies making their way around the course. After the first two teams rolled on Sunday, Pittsburgh decided that heavy snow was in order.  Given that no team currently has windshield wipers installed on their buggies, Sweepstakes called it and all parties returned home.  There are only 3 weekends left before Carnival, and it’s starting to get desperate for teams to be qualified to compete on Raceday. In the coming weeks, we will hopefully be seeing a strong showing from all the teams.

Unfortunately this week the BAA was unable to get the speed trap up and running, so there isn’t any timing data for last weekend. Given how close we are to Carnival, we should have everything setup for data collection in the coming weeks.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• • Apex – Phoenix was out this weekend, starting off her Saturday with at least one bag on the bar. We’re not sure if they are training a new driver (unlikely since we are so close to Carnival) or if last semester’s driver is just easing her way into the spring. The team seemed to have been struggling to get pushers out because after each freeroll, Phoenix came to a controlled stop on Hill 3 and was walked up the sidewalk. Hopefully they can get their push team up and moving next week so they can put up a similar performance to last year’s Raceday.
  • CIA –  New buggy on the horizon! Making her debut this weekend was the newest member of CIA’s fleet: Tempest. Sporting a similar profile to Equinox and Icarus, and paper covering, Tempest made her way slowly around the course rolling with bags until the last roll of the Saturday. Hopefully next week we’ll get a better idea of just how fast she might be. CIA otherwise put on their usual roll performance with relatively fast senior buggies, decent Hill 3 roll outs, and mechanics practicing floating the taco. It seems that the drivers have settled on their chute lines, which are fairly unique by driver. 
  • Fringe – If you didn’t know any better you might assume Fringe’s buggies are held together with masking tape and cardboard. Two of their buggies are still sport paper covering and one was rocking cardboard box fairings. Fringe’s drivers appear to still be hammering out their chute lines, with one driver trying to cut between the manhole cover and hay bales in an unsure fashion. It also appears that the team has given up on flagging from the opposite side of the road at the first flag position.
  • PiKA – Banshee was out and rolling this weekend, but without a tail hatch cover. The driver must have had some cold toes. As per their usual, PiKA was getting some great rollouts on Hill 3 and was the only team consistently completing full Hill 1s. The team was executing some pretty spectacular Hill 2 send offs, with chatter from the top of the hill suggesting the driver fish tailed a bit before the freeroll.
  • SDC – The SDC buggies were getting the best Hill 3 rollouts of all the teams rolling on Saturday. This was despite some shaky chute lines by a couple of their drivers. Two of their buggies were also scrubbing a significant amount of speed via controlled skidding in the chute. Fortunately, SDC has had such a strong showing this year that they should have time to hammer out these details in the next 3 weeks. SDC was also consistently practicing full starts with their mechanics floating the buggy.
  • SigEp – Oh hey SigEp! Kraken made an appearance this Saturday after some significant time off. Despite this being their first roll in several weeks, Kraken’s driver maintained some beautiful chute lines and seemed to have no trouble navigating the course. Hopefully SigEp will be a regular presence in the upcoming weeks.
  • Spirit -.Spirit ‘s fleet was out in full force with 4 buggies on Saturday, and they managed to squeak in a pass test before the snow hit on Sunday. Their pushers were a little slow out the gate on Saturday though. Inviscid had to come to a complete stop as she waited for her Hill 3 pusher to pick her up. After that hiccup, the back hills went smoothly for the team. Unfortunately Spirit was again the only team to have a spin this weekend. The driver appeared to have lost control mid way through the chute, spun at least 180 deg before coming to stop. Given how regularly this is occurring, we are beginning to have safety concerns for Raceday. We hope that they will get things under control soon.