After two weekends off thanks to spring break and missing permits, Buggy was back on this weekend. However, the Pittsburgh police did not grace us with their presence on either Saturday or Sunday. While the rules now state that Rolls can go on without them, it made for increased traffic at the chute barricade. Interestingly, as we understand it, the police feel it necessary to be at evening push practice, and their absence has caused cancellations of push practice. To quote one of our local alumni “what gives?”

Saturday was clear, dry, and cold with temperatures in the upper 20s. Sunday was a much “better” day weather wise with less wind and temperatures above freezing. Ben Brown out with a modified speed trap design at the monument getting some great results that we hope to share with you soon.

Sweepstakes had a nearly full dance card this weekend, with everyone but SAE out on Saturday and the full horde out on Sunday with a couple new buggies to boot. Several teams were putting in full Hill 1’s and 2’s in preparation for the rapidly approaching Raceday. While this is about when we would expect teams to breaking out the full push-offs, buggies just aren’t going as fast as we might predict. As the temperatures rise, we hope that speed will too.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

Apex: First on the list of new buggies is Apex with NB19 code name “Creamy” or “#Lit”*. The newest member of their fleet is a sleek-looking reverse-trike with some serious potential. Phoneix and Firefly were rolling with missing/not fully attached rear hatches, and the former was exhibiting some erratic behavior around the stop sign, brand new driver, her second weekend out on the course, only her 5th roll for the year. It doesn’t seem like the right time to be introducing someone to the race course, especially with only 2 drivers qualified and a brand new buggy.

*”Creamy” is apparently a youth slang term for smooth and without trouble. An antonym of “Crunchy.” “Lit” in this context most likely means “exciting” or “excellent.” Side note, I had to look up one of the two of these online and now officially feel old.

CIA: Aurora was back out with the start of a paint job and a farings around the tail and push bar. She’s looking much more complete than last week. The org continues to roll without a follow car requiring them to team up with other orgs to chauffeur the Safety chair around during pass test attempts. They’ve resorted to the age-old technique of rolling with other teams to squeak Aurora in for Raceday.

Fringe: Fringe remains a steady force on the buggy course. The team swapped a new driver into Boson this weekend and brought out Blueshift for only the second time this semester. It might be tight to get that buggy/driver combo qualified. NB19 is looking like a strong new member of their fleet. Fringe did provide a good bit of excitement on Sunday when a late Hill 3 pickup for Boson allowed Blueshift to catch up for a foot race up the back hills. Also, during a set up for a past test, the second buggy’s pusher delayed the send off when they saw the follow car racing up behind. The follow car stopped in time, but the second buggy stood no chance of making the pass.

PhiDelt: PhiDelt is out for their first spring rolls this Saturday and Sunday. After skipping the first 4 weekends, they joined forces with SigEp to attempt a pass test but were unsuccessful.

PiKA: Another new buggy on the course! Their first reverse trike since Nemesis (2011), NB19 looks like it might be able to keep up with Cliodhna. Pike’s support team had a couple issues when their transition flagger missing for a roll and confused the first driver who stopped (and got rather annoyed). Since there was no stop flag, the second driver continued through after passing first.

SAE: SAE made their debut at rolls on Saturday, getting in a total of 4; giving them a total of… 4 for the year. Their driver either missed the transition flag or got some bum directions and opted to go around the right side of the monument. Fortunately, she successfully navigated around and made it to the chute without incident.With only 4 rolls and clear need for more practice, they have some serious catching up to do.

SDC: SDC unveiled Vanity this weekend, looking in profile like the other speedy members of their fleet but in a sweet pearlescent aquamarine straight out of the middle of the 20th century. By Sunday they were already attempting pass tests. Havoc had a near-spin mid-chute on Sunday that ended in a bail slap. After a quick talk with EMS, the team had her rolling up the back hills. As is the now rule, she did not roll again for the rest of the day. It is also noteworthy that Malice has not been back to the course since its crash a couple weeks ago.

SigEp: Hydra was looking unstable during an attempted pass test this Sunday. She weaved through the cones off Hill 2 and continued to do so well into the first transitions. This might have influenced their decision to pull Hydra after one 2 rolls.

SigNu: SigNu made it out on Sunday, managing 3 rolls for their new driver in Krait. They have been pairing up with CIA to get the minimum in to qualify for Raceday.

Spirit: The Spirit buggies had a smooth and uneventful weekend of rolls; the best kind of weekend. To note, they have stripped the paint from Kingpin and returned it to grey, New paint incoming!

Quick and dirty chute times have SDC not as fast as usual, while Spirit, CIA and Fringe all have some good times mixed into their rolls. We expect to see increased speeds all around as the temperature warms up.

As a reminder, we still need folks to volunteer for various Carnival and Raceday related things. If you can spare an hour during the weekend, please sign up to help with the services and events that we all love from the BAA.

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Rolls Report Contributors:
Ethan G.
Ben M.
Tom F.