If rain on your wedding day is a sign of good luck, what does it mean if there’s Buggy on your wedding day? With the Great Race on Sunday, there was only 1 day of Rolls this weekend. But with 6 teams on the course, even some more wildlife and vehicular traffic couldn’t stop rolls for too long and teams got a fair number of clean rolls in.

Brimstone running away from the altar

• What better place to have a wedding on a Saturday in September than Phipps Conservatory? One person learned this weekend – probably just about anywhere else. A car approached multiple different barricades early during rolls on Saturday, insisting that he needed to get through because his wedding was taking place at Phipps. Although he was told that the roads were closed, he kept trying until eventually finding success at the Chute barricade, resulting in a short delay. We’re not sure if it’s a good sign for the marriage that he was willing to do whatever it took to get there, or a bad sign that he wouldn’t listen to what he was told.

• A groom wasn’t the only vehicle delay on the course on Saturday. Rolls were briefly put on hold for a pair of golf carts that came through the Phipps barricade. We’re left to wonder if the wedding couple was planning to drive down the aisle.

• Rolls were also delayed briefly by some more wildlife at the course. This week, the wildlife in question was approximately 10,000,000* geese. For the most part, they stayed off the course and kept themselves on Flagstaff Hill. But for a brief period, rolls were put on hold, either because the geese had entered the course or just out of an abundance of caution.

• Apex. Apex had an uneventful day, continue to mix up which buggies they bring out. This time, they brought Firefly and Scorch, with each buggy getting 5 rolls in.

Apex had an uneventful day

• CIA. CIA only brought 3 buggies out today, leaving Equinox behind for a day to give their pushers a rest. This gave Equinox’s driver a chance to try out pushing for the first time, but it ended like many first time Hill 5s do – with a buggy getting away and a faceplant. Emperor was rolling with bags after last week’s spin in the Chute, but this time everything went smoothly, which each buggy adding an additional 7 rolls to their count. But for the second week in a row, a buggy had a close call with a squirrel, this time with Kingfisher narrowly avoiding the squirrel near the Stop Sign. It’s unclear if the squirrel knows that spectators are supposed to remain off the road. We’ve reached out to the squirrel for comment, but have not received a response as of publication.

Kingfisher vs. Squirrel? Seems like my bird feeder.

• Fringe. Fringe came out on Saturday with 2 buggies but 3 drivers, with veteran driver Kyrsten and rookie driver Arini splitting time in Brimstone, picking up 2 rolls each.

Road closed? Not for buggies!

• PiKA. PiKA led to the most excitement on the course today. With a roster full of new drivers, there was a bit of a learning curve on Day 1. PiKA came out with all 3 of their buggies, but during one of their rolls, the driver of the first buggy (we don’t know which one) came to a controlled stop near the Transition Flag. The second buggy, either to avoid the stopped buggy or for being new to the course (or maybe to crash the wedding), turned left at Phipps and ended up rolling up the sidewalk before coming to a stop. The third buggy came to a controlled stop, though it’s unclear where or if they ran through a stop flag, as there were reports of a missed stop flag on the day. (Ed. note: PiKA did NOT run through a stop flag). The roll count for the day only lists Raptor as having completed rolls, so we assume that this was the only attempted roll for Banshee and Cleona on Saturday; hopefully there were no issues and both are just preparing for next week.

Raptor, the only PiKA buggy to complete a roll on Saturday

• SDC. SDC recovered after some minor hiccups last Sunday to net the most single rolls of the day, with 7 for Avarice (tied with CIA). They were uneventful, though the last roll of the day did reportedly see the buggy coming to a stop. However, the buggy and driver were fine to continue and were pushed through to the end. More importantly for SDC, we were told that the “SDC follow truck was a hit as always.”

SDC’s very popular follow truck

• Spirit. Spirit had 3 buggies out with 1 new driver, who already has 14 rolls this semester, and 2 returning drivers. We have no reports of the Spirit buggies this week, which is usually a sign of clean rolls. The same can’t be said for the Spirit mechanics though. One unfortunate mechanic wasn’t positioned correctly while catching, and had their foot run over by a buggy. Note to current students: while feet can stop a buggy, it’s far better to use your hands.

Gathering momentum to make a mechanic very unhappy later