The parents were out in force this weekend! Thanks for everyone who came out to support the insane sport of buggy bright and early this past Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome to have an enthusiastic audience that was either knowledgeable about buggy, asking great questions or even participating; and did we see some folks pushing the back hills?

Shenanigans started before the first buggy was one its way. At 7:15 am on Saturday, bales were still being set up along the Chute. Sweepstakes put out a call for anyone with a broom to clean off the copious amounts of loose hay, after last weekend seems like our fearless leaders are doing everything in their power to reduce the number of incidents.

That said we did start rolling Robobuggy on Saturday while a buggy related vehicle was still parked down in the Chute. The buggy and follow car passed through without incident. Immediately following the first robobuggy roll, the Sweepstakes chair drove down the course and parked between the groups of flaggers to inspect and then correct the placement of the hay bale on the staircase. Unfortunately, Robo still got the all clear even with a car parked in the middle of the road. To their credit they were able to complete the roll without any incident by dodging between the monument and the Sweepstakes vehicle. Atlas was not out this weekend.

With autonomous rolls wrapped up we got started with human filled buggies.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• Apex – Apex, back to rolling two buggies, lost their rear hatch just on their first roll of the weekend. In all following rolls they could be seen securing it with copious amounts of tape. Sweepstakes after some conferring decided to look the other way on this loss of mass incident. Kind of them since they were close enough to watch it happen. The team was sadly absent from rolls on Sunday due to a lack of available drivers.
• CIA – Orca did not return to the course this week after last week’s crash, which is not terribly surprising given the extent of the damage. Word on the street is that the team was short on drivers for Saturday rolls providing them with enough pushers for full Hill 1s. You have to keep those pushers busy or else they’ll get themselves into trouble… Speaking of those pushers, by Sunday, the CIA parental units had caught Buggy Fever and gave pushing a shot. It was a real parent-child bonding experience. The rest of Sunday was uneventful for the team, save Icarus clipping the outer bales during one roll. The driver was able to brake safely and no major damage to driver or buggy occurred.
• Fringe – We saw many enthusiastic Fringe parents down in the Chute on Saturday with a few daring to push some back hills. It looked as though the parents gained an appreciation for their children’s athleticism after a little buggy pushing though. The team was sending buggies off in rapid succession this weekend leading some Raceday-level exciting finishes at Hill 5. Sunday brought an even more breath-taking finish when the Blueshift tapped one of the finish line catchers and lost its front hatch. More duct tape, Fringe!
• PiKA – PiKA has been keeping their speed up, and Saturday was no different. Off bags since day one Cleo was flying around the course, their experienced driver is only a few weeks into rolls and seems to be refining her line. The team was solid all weekend until the last Sunday roll when Cliodhna spun without contact in the Chute and ended the weekend’s rolls.
• SDC – Avarice and Vice started the day bagged, but their new drivers rolled without incidents. By the end of rolls on Saturday, SDC seemed to have returned to form and is rolling quickly, collecting data, and operating at a high level of efficiency. Unfortunately on Sunday, Vice again hit the pothole just before the Chute and again broke an axel clean off. The driver was fine after the incident, and hopefully the Quikrete fairy can help with the pothole.
• SigEp – Beyoncé was back this week in all of her glory. We haven’t seen this new mother since race day but it seems like maternity leave is over and she’s back to the grindstone. It’s normally the purview of SAE to bring some lighthearted fun to rolls and we’re happy someone is filling that niche until we see the return of SAE. The brothers (might have been?) celebrating with a late night event on Saturday because it was a skeleton crew of only a couple pushers and 2 buggies on Sunday. More power to the dedicated few.
• SigNu – Oh hey, SigNu! We’ve missed you. The team was back on Sunday getting in a couple rolls. They were a little uncoordinated (as expected for a first appearance), and forgot to connect with their follow car on the first roll. The Hill 2 pusher had to take off down the Freeroll chasing after Krait. The team worked out most of their kinks by the end of rolls including finding the best way to lift their buggy and having the driver brake at the finish line.
• Spirit – Spirit hit the snooze alarm and scratched their first roll of the weekend. When the rotation came back around they snuck one buggy through before offering up the only incident of Saturday. The second buggy took her chute turn very wide and collided with the outer bales and came to a stop. EMS checked out the driver and she was cleared to be pushed back up the hill; everyone hit their marks as the flaggers stopped the third Spirit buggy. The follow car along with the safety chair were down in the Chute in moments. Rolls resumed very quickly and Spirit continued to roll their 3 buggies for the rest of the day.In a different roll, one of the Spirit buggies stopped briefly on Hill 3 after an audible scratching sound came from somewhere below the buggy. It was briefly picked up, set back down, and continued to roll without noise. We still aren’t sure of the cause of the sound. By Sunday, Spirit had everything back in order. The day was uneventful save for one spin early in rolls.

Other incidents:

Phipps conservatory was having a conference Saturday morning which kept the Chute barricader busy, for most of the day they were opening the barricade between rolls to let in half a dozen cars or more. A number of drivers had difficulty listening to directions and decided they were going to attempt to drive up Schenley, one of them even attempted to park along the monument. Radio club, flaggers and the barricader joined in shouting down and chasing these wayward cars. None of them created any significant delays to rolls but it kept the radio safety net busy, along with some shouting being heard down in the chute.

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

—
Rolls Report Contributors:
Ethan G. – Writer
Ben M. – Notes
Natalie M. – Editor