Rolls Report: November 12 & 13 – MiniRaceday!!

Rolls this week were on the chilly side, topping out just above freezing both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday saw the bare minimum for quorum, which allowed Robobuggy to get in a couple extra rolls. The start of the weekend was more or less uneventful with some buggies getting up to 7 rolls. Very few alums were out and about and the most interesting thing of the day was a flock Canadian Geese that took over Flagstaff.


Sunday, continuing in its grand tradition, was MiniRaceday. Every participating org was out and rolling, save PhiDelt who is rumored to be focusing on their new build this semester. Teams were putting in a full effort to win amazing and wonderful prizes that have yet to be announced. Other than speeding buggies, Sunday was also fairly uneventful except for SigNu’s first roll. A stop flag was accidentally thrown at the Chute and Krait came to a full spinning stop. The driver was fine and was allowed to finish the loop.

Since everyone was doing their absolute best, we’ll just leave you with the official results from Sweepstakes and alumni-taken times for the weekend.

In Attendance 

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

Observations (Saturday Gallery Sunday Gallery )

MiniRaceday Winners:
1) SDC
2) CIA
3) Fringe

The top three teams are not too surprising considering the last few years of buggies. It is interesting that Spirit and PiKA were among the top 5 but not top 3. PiKA seemed to be lagging a bit on the back hills and the cold may have been sapping Spirit’s speed. Word is that SDC and CIA were heating wheels, which likely provided their edge.

Our fearless and well-insulated alumni were out on both Saturday and Sunday taking timing data using similar methods from last Spring.

Saturday Times

Team Buggy Freeroll Speed (mph) Chute Loss
PiKA 35.3 6
SDC Malice 36.1 6.6
SDC Bane 32.7
Fringe Red/Blue 33.5 6
Fringe Yellow/Black 32.4 5.8
CIA Equinox 35.9 6.1
CIA Impulse 32.5 4.6
Apex 19.9 5.6
Spirit Kingpin 34.7 6.9
Spirit Zuke 33.9 4.8
Spirit Inviscid 29.3 5.4
Fringe Red/Blue 33.5 5.5
Fringe Yellow/Black 32.2 5.2
CIA Impulse 34.1 6.8
Apex 26.7 4.8
Spirit Zuke 34.1 6.3
Spirit Stripes 34.8 7.1
Spirit Inviscid 30.2
PiKA 35.9 7.2
SDC Malice 35.9 6.6
SDC Bane 30.7 5.6
SDC Orange 29.9 5
SDC Green 28.9 5.1
Fringe Red/Blue
Fringe Yellow/Black
Fringe Gray/Orange
CIA Impulse 32.5 5.5
CIA Equinox 35.9 6.4
Apex 26.7 5.1
PiKA
SDC Malice 35.9 7.2
SDC Bane 30.2 5.6
SDC Orange 30.5 5.6
SDC Green
Fringe Yellow/Black 32 5.2
Apex 21.3 4.6
Spirit Kingpin 34.1 6.3
Spirit Zuke 33.5 5.5
Spirit Inviscid 31
SDC Bane 34.5 7.9
SDC Orange 30.4 5.1

Sunday Times

Team Buggy Freeroll Speed (mph) Chute Loss
SigEp Kraken 28.7
SigEp Gray 28.3
SDC Bane 34.2 4.3
SDC Malice 31.2 3.8
SDC Orange 30.2 4.3
SDC Green 28.5 4.2
Fringe Red/Blue
CIA Equinox
CIA Impulse 32.2 3.5
CIA Icarus 29.3 3.1
SigNu Krait 32.4 4.7
Spirit Kingpin
Spirit Zuke 33.9 4.2
PiKA  Cliodhna 34.7 5.5
SigEp Kraken 28 3.9
SigEp Gray 27.5 3.9
SDC Malice 35.1 5
SDC Bane 31 3.3
SDC Orange 29.9 3.4
SDC Green 28.2 3.5
Fringe Red/Blue 33.9 4.2
Fringe Yellow/Black 33.3 4.8
CIA Equinox 35.5 4.1
CIA Impulse 32 3.8
CIA Icarus 29.3 3.1
Spirit Kingpin 34.1 5.4
Spirit Stripes 34.1 5.5
Spirit Inviscid 31.8 5.6
SigEp Kraken 26.7 4
SDC Malice 34.5 3.7
SDC Bane 29 3.7
SDC Orange 28.9 3.6
SDC Green 27.9 3.1
Fringe Red/Blue 35.1 4.3
Fringe Gray 33.1 3.4
Fringe Yellow/Black
CIA Equinox 34.2 4.2
CIA Impulse 33.1 3.7
CIA Icarus 29.9 2.9

The discrepancies between the fastest teams (Fringe, SDC, PiKA, Spirit, CIA) down the Freeroll seem to rather small, and can likely be leveled out by impressive Hill 1’s. However, PiKA and Spirit are losing significant speed through the Chute, which ultimately affects rollouts and the backhill times. The SDC and CIA drivers seem to have found their sweet spots when it comes to navigating the Chute and are bleeding off minimal speed. Fringe sits strongly in the middle of the leading pack, with speed Freerolls and solid Chute lines, but just can’t seem to edge out CIA and SDC.

Altogether it was a great weekend for rolls. This coming weekend will be the last possible day of rolls before it’s time for the buggies to go into hibernation in their cozy garages. Come out this weekend to get your last buggy fix before winter settles in.


Rolls Report Contributors:
Ben M.
Natalie M.
Shafeeq S.

Rolls Report: November 5 & 6 – A full and smooth weekend

This weekend we had both the shortest and the longest days of rolls for the year. Buggies were rolling Saturday by 7:45am with the sun and buggies ceased rolling at 8:45am, as per Saturday tradition. In conflict with the rising sun, the temperature stagnated at a character building 37*F. There was a slight delay as the collective group tried to figure out if EMS was actually on the scene.  After EMS was confirmed, the morning got off to a panicked start. After Robobuggy pushed off, a Fringe car set off against traffic to deliver their flaggers and coffee. The safety chair immediately gave chase, but was unable to stop the determined Fringe motorist. The vehicle and Transistor crossed paths in the Chute, but by an act of the Buggy Gods, no contact was made. For safety reasons, we encourage all orgs to never drive vehicles against the flow of buggy traffic.

Hooray daylight savings time! Sunday Rolls started at 6:45 give or take a few minutes for radio club safety net members to get into position. Three vehicles remained on the back hills as the towing company that Sweepstakes uses was too busy to get down to rolls this morning.
Safety chair was performing spot-safety checks all morning and reminding teams to be especially careful as the accelerated pace of rolls can lead to small oversights that can cause accidents.  Although the pace was indeed fast, it was controlled (thanks to an on-top-of-it Sweepstakes). At least 3 teams completed 8 rolls.

It appeared that the Alumni Speed trap was in operation Sunday morning. We await the data from our gracious alumni on who is rolling fastest this early in the season.

In Attendance 

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

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery )

    • RoboBuggy – Robobuggy joined the roll order Sunday morning rolling as the first roll and again at the top of the roll order. Hopefully the extra practice is useful to them. Their ability to iterate on their programs and gain data is somewhat diminished by only rolling once per morning. It will be exciting to see what Robobuggy can accomplish as this will be their third year consistently rolling.
    • CIApexCIA continues to be unable to find a follow car, but the combined forces of CIApex create one full working org– though their full-to-bursting follow-SUV made for some good laughs over the safety net as people reported the course being clear of the “mother of all follow cars.” That said, CIA has always been an organization capable of mastering the logistical nightmare that comes with rolling more buggies than any other team.

           The benefits of having a heavier buggy were seen on the course Sunday morning. Although there are some reports of Tempest’s wheels being heated and and treated, today it was no match for one of the most ironically named buggies rolling: Orca. The whale of a buggy managed to pass Tempest during the Freeroll. Remember everyone, pass tests need to be set up ahead of time! Someone does need to talk to the driver of Icarus about their chute line which puts them right overtop of a drain cover, nearly every single time.

    • 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 On Saturday morning an attempt to coordinate a fast push up hill 1, PiKA misses their 30 second window after being ‘cleared’ to go and is forced to scratch their first roll. Despite some organizational hiccups, PiKA continues to roll quickly, smoothly and constantly. On Sunday they could be seen floating their buggy and have possibly begun the process of heating wheels and ramping up their speeds. Their only failing last race day was being Fishing Club, and also rolling too quickly for their Hill 5 to catch the pushbar. Expect a competitive PiKA come April.
    • SDC Although enthusiastic to keep everyone on schedule, SDC’s haste to keep rolls moving quickly may have resulted in tragedy, as on the way to their first roll the mechanic carrying Avarice slipped on some wet grass and dropped the fully loaded buggy. The buggy was cleared to roll but an unfortunate chute line put the driver right into the hay bales by the gazebo. She was safely extracted but did not continue to roll for the rest of the day. Avarice returned on Sunday without incident. SDC was observed holding Malice back and floating the buggy before their rolls.
    • SigEp – Kraken was working its way around the course Saturday, but was back to hibernating on Sunday. The team is progressing steadily, although they are a shadow of their once speedy selves. Hopefully as the semester continues they will find some of their historic speed. 
    • SigNuThe big news this week was SigNu’s attendance at rolls! The fraternity showed up in force with veteran driver Raisa Chowdhury to start off the day on Saturday. After an inauspicious arrival to the starting line without a rear hatch and some confusion between the organization and sweepstakes as to where a buggy must finish a roll, they put in 3 rolls on Saturday and are off to a strong start.
      Their members are interested in rekindling their old buggy legacy and want to drum up enthusiasm in their fraternity for our uniquely CMU sport. The goals for this year are to be a competitive team and progress to finals on race day. If they can impress their alumni, the organization has been promised them the use of some quality wheels and a buggy shell lighter than that of their current offering “Bungaris Krait”. It’s great to see SigNu out again on a field where fraternity representation is shrinking rapidly. It would have been even better to seem them out Sunday morning where the early start allowed us to complete 8 cycles of the roll order and could have fully qualified a driver for the fall.
    • SpiritSaturday was mostly uneventful for Spirit. They could be seen bagging some of their buggies, suggesting some new drivers appearing on the course. Maybe a build in the works for them? Unfortunately on Sunday Spirit had the only major incident when Kingpin’s driver took their chute turn too wide and hit the bales, shattering the rear axle of the buggy and causing it to slide along the ground. The driver was extracted safely and could be heard expressing concern about the condition of the buggy. Kingpin scratched for the rest of the day. But otherwise Spirit continues to pick up the characteristic speed we’ve come to expect from them.


Rolls Report Contributors:
Ethan G.
Natalie M.

Rolls Report: October 29 – Happy Halloween and Homecoming!

After a mid-semester break siesta, buggies were back and rolling this past Saturday. Sunday was preemptively canceled due to it being Halloween weekend. Sweepstakes figured the teams would be too exhausted from a late night of bobbing for apples and pumpkin carving. Yup, definitely that. It was also Scottie Saturday/Homecoming weekend, so the BAA had a table full of coffee and donuts. Of course, that was mostly devoured by the students. A veritable horde of recent SDC alums descended upon the course as well to cheer on the current members. It’s always great to see a strong showing of buggy alumni.

A few members of the BAA were testing out the new collaborative timing app, but there weren’t quite enough people to get it functional. The app relies on multiple users indicating when a buggy passes certain points on the course. Hopefully next week we’ll have enough people working with it for it to be operative. The more standard Speed Trap didn’t make it to rolls even though the teams were ready with reflective tape on their buggies in an attempt to increase accuracy. It should also be out and functional next weekend.

A missing radio club member caused rolls to start on the later side of the morning (~7:50am). When the backup arrived, buggies started rolling. It was a fairly smooth day that ended a bit earlier than usual. Interestingly, a hay bale was missing from the light post prior to the turn. Fortunately this wasn’t an issue.

In Attendance

Org Saturday
Apex Phoenix
CIA Icarus, Impulse, Equinox, Tempest, Orca
Fringe Bissa, Bolt, Boson
PiKA Raptor, Cliodhna
SAE Lucy
SDC Malice, Havoc, Bane, Vice
SigEp Kraken, Barracuda
Spirit Inviscid, King Pin

Observations (Saturday Gallery)
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