Posted on | by Natalie McGuier

Just a couple quick announcements before diving into all the Buggy-goodness:

  1. The BAA needs you! With Carnival just 15 days away, we are looking for volunteers to help out with various Raceday-related events including the WRCT broadcast, Design Showcase Panel, Tabling, and updating the official race times on the BAA website. If you can help, please sign up. We will have small tokens of our thanks for your time, as well as a free buggy book!
  2. If you are currently reading this rolls report you should feel obligated to call, text, tweet at Pittsburgh 311 and to tell them that the road at the intersection of Tech Street and Schenley Drive is in an unacceptable condition. Coming over the top of hill two took more than a few drivers by surprise to the tune of lost hatches and catching air and possibly influenced worse mechanical issues. Phone Number: 3-1-1 (Pittsburgh Area) 412-255-2621 (Outside PGH)
    Online Form and Twitter

Dipping temperatures made for an uncomfortable two days of Rolls, but with wet/freezing weather and otherwise poor attendance this semester, teams were out en masse this weekend. As it was, the start of Rolls was delayed until 7:20 on Saturday due to PiKA refusing to complete their hay bale chore (yes, they were rolling on Saturday), and delayed again on Sunday until 7:45 because of rain and wet roads. Or, as CIA put it “it wasn’t not raining.”

In Attendance (See roll counts at the end of this report for driver qualifications)

Org Saturday Sunday
Apex “Hot Potato” Firefly, Phoenix, Ember, “Hot Potato”
CIA Emperor, Impulse, Tempest, Equinox Emperor, Impulse, Equinox, Tempest
Fringe Boson, Blueshift, Bissa, Bolt, “Bumper” Boson Blueshift, Bolt, “Bumper”
PhiDelt Argo Argo
PiKA Cliodhna, Banshee, Raptor
SAE New Buggy! New Buggy!
SDC Inferno, Malice, Vice, Avarice Inferno, Malice, Vice, Avarice
SigEp Kraken, Hydra
Spirit Zuke, King Pin, Seraph, Inviscid

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)


Three new Buggies made their debut this weekend. RoboBuggy rolled Transistor on Saturday, but had the new and shiny NAND (heh) out on Sunday. At the moment NAND is being remote-controlled, but excitement abounds at just having it out. The BAA extends their congratulations to RoboBuggy as we take one step closer to a reign of Robot Overlords.

Apex presented a reverse-trike buggy fresh from the oven, wrapped in what appeared to be aluminum foil (or maybe it was just metallic tape). HotBakedPotatoBuggy had a successful first roll around the course, but experienced some difficulties on their second time around. The driver experienced visibility problems causing her to hit the brakes on the Freeroll before the monument. The driver was all right, and after a lengthy conference with EMS and Sweepstakes she was extracted and driven back to camp. Ember also had some trouble on Saturday when the buggy suffered a mechanical issue shortly after the Hill 2 shove. The driver lost control of the steering and hit the brakes. Ember struck the curb scratching some paint, but the driver unharmed and extracted.

What’s that? SAE is out AND they have a new buggy?! We don’t know much about this buggy other than it is a forward trike with a profile reminiscent of CIA’s Tempest. Also, it is currently camouflaged as Pittsburgh’s current weather patterns. The new buggy is moving with cautious confidence around the course and we are looking forward to seeing it at speed in the upcoming weeks.

PhiDelt was back on the course taking it slow with Argo. Unfortunately at one point the driver lost control of steering for unknown reasons around Panther Hollow Bridge. She applied brakes but because of no steering, still made it partially onto the sidewalk by the time the buggy had stopped. EMS cleared the driver and she was extracted from the buggy.

The brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha of provided most of the excitement on Saturday. Early in the day Banshee lost its hatch in the Chute. The driver came to stop in the latter third of the Chute. Despite good spacing between the buggies the flaggers neglected to throw stop flags and Buggies 2 and 3 had to pass the debris in the Chute. During the final Saturday Roll, Raptor managed to hit the rough road surface at the top of Hill 2 and lost its hatch. Unfortunately the Buggy had picked up too much speed to stop. During the same roll, Banshee’s hatch issues continued in the Chute, causing it to spread debris on the road surface and come to a stop. Stop flags were thrown this time and Buggies two and three came safely to a stop.

There isn’t too much to say about the rest of the teams out and rolling this past weekend. SDC, Fringe, SigEp, Spirit and CIA were all rolling smoothly without much excitement save a few pass tests here and there. The lightness of the SDC buggies meant that they were getting air if they hit the pothole at the top of Hill 2. CIA is showing off their official paint job on Emperor, which has a solid 1980’s spandex feel to it. Fringe won the Ambition Award and were rolling 5 buggies through the course in the time it takes most teams to roll 3.

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts:
*indicates New driver | Pass Test Completed | Fully Qualified

Team Buggy Driver Fall Rolls Spring Rolls
Apex Firefly Sam 9
Bethany* 5
Ari* 1 3
Phoenix Ari* 3
Vicki* 8 3
Bethany* 2 5
Ember Bethany* 3
Hot Potato Sam 2
CIA Orca Vicky 2
Tanvi* 6
Emperor Rachel* 22 7
Icarus Rishi* 7
Impulse Yushuan 2
Rachel* 3
Kevin* 3
Bonnie* 6
Equinox Emily 16 7
Tempest Kady 26 7
Fringe Boson Helen 13 5
Blueshift Amy 14 8
Nina 8
Bissa Tishya* 11 4
Nina 8
Bolt Sarah* 13 8
Bumper Nina 10
PhiDelt Argo Sarah 2
Adeline 2 4
PiKA Cliodhna Victoria 18
Taylor 1
Banshee Victoria 2 5
Raptor Archana 1 2
SAE  New Buggy  Lawrence* 4
SDC Inferno Annie 21 9
Kyoko 3
Malice Annie 3
Kyoko 18 9
Vice Elaine* 16 12
Avarice Amanda* 16  7
Bane Amanda* 1
SigEp Beyonce Nazil
Haiwen* 11
Kraken Nazli 6 3
Haiwen* 2
Barricuda Sophie 7
Beccy* 8
Hydra Beccy* 3
SigNu Krait Claire*
Alana* 2
Spirit Seraph Rebecca
Sarah* 8 7
Lillie* 6
Zuke Diamond 20 5
Kingpin Rebecca* 17 5
Lillie*
Sarah* 1
Inviscid Beichen 15 7
Menes Sarah 3

—

Rolls Report Contributors:
Ethan G.
Shafeeq S.
Natalie M.
RoboBuggy

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