It was a dry weekend that made for some excellent rolls this past weekend. Saturday was a bit chilly, but Sunday was absolutely beautiful. 7 teams made it out to at least one day of rolls with SAE and SigNu still trying to get through capes. Sweepstakes has been doing an excellent job keeping the teams organized at the top of the hill and Sunday they managed to get most teams 6 rolls. In an effort to create a more friendly and cooperative environment, Sweepstakes held a “can you name all the chairmen” challenge at last Chairmen’s meeting. Apex and SDC tied and shared a piñata filled with candy after rolls.

We are happy to report that it was a relatively uneventful weekend of rolls. Only SDC had any issues and those turned out to be relatively minor (more details below).

This week some members of the BAA were beta testing a new app that is effectively a collaborative effort to acquire timing data. Although the timing won’t be exact, it has great potential for general trends and split times. We’ll have updates on that in the future. Thanks to the efforts of one of our more dedicated alums, we should have more detailed timing data for you later on this week.

In Attendance 

Org	Saturday	Sunday
Apex	Phoenix	Phoenix
CIA	Tempest, Icarus, Equinox, Impulse	Icarus, Impulse, Equinox, Orca
Fringe	Boson, Beacon, Bissa, Bolt	Boson, Beacon, Bissa, Bolt
PiKA	Raptor	Raptor, Cliodhna
SDC	Malice, Havoc, Avarice, Bane	Malice, Havoc, Bane, Avarice
SigEp	Kraken
Spirit	Inviscid, Kingpin, Zuke	Kingpin, Seraph, Zuke

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• • RoboBuggy – Transistor made an appearance this weekend much to the excitement of the spectators. The team is still trying to make their robot buggy autonomous, but they are looking more and more like an actual buggy every time they go around the course.
  • Apex – In the spirit of buggy love, Apex shared their follow car with CIA and the teams rolled together on each go Sunday. In return, CIA flagged for Apex. Only Phoenix was out and rolling this weekend and was moving cautiously around the course. The drivers were still using bags into Sunday, but at least one of the team’s drivers were bag-free by the end of rolls.
  • CIA – CIA is continuing with their show of force with 4 buggies out both days of rolls. Even though it’s only the second weekend of rolls, CIA has started heating wheels on Equinox. This reportedly led to a foot race between two Hill 5 pushers on Sunday. This competitive mentality has kept CIA amongst the top team for the last 3 years and is just great to see from an org that not that long ago barely had enough people to keep their fleet afloat.
  • Fringe – Fringe was out with 4 buggies, Saturday and Sunday with most the drivers rolling bagless. The entire fleet is smooth, quiet, and quick around the course. Several of their buggies were already catching windows on Hill 3. On Sunday all the drivers were getting full Hill 2 push offs.
  • PiKA – The experienced PiKA drivers are moving quickly around the course, but it might be too early in the season for that kind of speed. During at least one roll, a driver had significant fish tailing entering the Chute, but was able to recover. Unfortunately their back hill speed isn’t matching with their Freeroll, and it appears that the team is taking it easy on the uphill. In other PiKA news, their flaggers continue to entertain spectators in the Chute, this week by flagging upside down and on their backs in what we’ll refer to as the “road kill” position.
  • SDC – As mentioned earlier, SDC provided most of the excitement for rolls this weekend. On Saturday a new driver in Vice missed the transition flag and hung a left up the path toward Phipps. She eventually slowed to a stop on the grass. The oddest part of the whole thing was that she was allowed back onto the road and to finish the roll. EMS drove up to top of the hill, which forced rolls to pause until they finished talking with the driver and returned to the Chute.  This combined with another delay led to teams only getting 2-3 rolls in. On Sunday, a pusher at the top of the Freeroll jumped the gun a bit and sent a buggy down hill before it was technically clear. Not that big of a deal, but still about the most exciting thing to happen on Sunday. There is apparently some friction between SDC and PiKA over Pike being slow to clear the finish line, but that may be due to heavy buggy traffic on Hill 5 than tardiness by PiKA.
  • SigEp – Kraken was out and rolling this Saturday. They rolled without incident, save losing their GoPro in the Chute on their first roll. The camera was thoroughly secured with gaffe tape for their second roll.
  • Spirit – Spirit appears to have a number of new drivers given that all 3 buggies were again bagged this Saturday. One of the buggies sported so much drag that it came to a complete stop just after entering the Chute on one roll. The Hill 3 pusher maintained a cheery facade despite having 3 times as much course to cover. By Sunday Spirit was moving a bit quicker and passed themselves at least once on the backhills.

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Rolls Report Contributors:
Ben M.
Lou C.
Natalie M.