Buggy is back for another year: welcome to the 2024-2025 season! A new rolls reporter is on the case this year- and I first want to thank Bryan Arsham for compiling these reports from California last year!

This weekend featured great weather, very few incidents, and even one new buggy! As we start this year, a quick reminder: these reports don’t happen without many people helping out- more details on how YOU can help at the end of the post! Now let’s get to the teams:

Spirit ready at Hill 2 for the first roll of the season, with the new Highmark Center in the background

• Anyone who’s been in Pittsburgh this summer knows that it has been exceptionally warm and sunny, and that continued this weekend. Temperatures at first roll were hovering about 60F for both days, with not a cloud in the sky. (As compared to last year’s first day- when it was 40F and foggy according to last year’s report!) Additionally, the teams that did come out were rolling very smoothly, and that led to many rolls, with many teams quickly losing the bags and getting some decent speed for the first weekend!

Is this Pittsburgh?!

• Of course, the good weather also brings out the bane of every barricader: runners and bikers. We had several this weekend that were very nimble in avoiding barricades, (including a larger bike team that really, really wanted to stay on the road, rolls were briefly paused) but the barricaders, Sweepstakes and support orgs were very effective in yelling them onto the sidewalk or off the course, with nothing I would term a close call.
  

It was so nice out even the squirrels stopped to watch!

• We also had a few new drivers on the course, and all were making it around the course well. Overall very few incidents over the two days, leading to a total of 7 times through the order on Saturday and at least that many on Sunday until roll-arounds were declared. Many returning drivers for the orgs that were out both days have already reached the max number of rolls that can be carried over from the fall for qualification.

CIA ready for roll-arounds

• As it was the first day of the rolls, sweeping can get a bit… interesting… with the accumulated items from a Pittsburgh summer. Your usual trash, flyers, carrion, and this time, we have heard, even dirty diapers. Thanks to those who clean up the roads for buggy!

Image redacted

• Apex. Apex was out Saturday this weekend, getting rolls for both Firefly and Solaris. They had one of the few “incidents’ of the weekend, with Firefly stopping very early in the freeroll on the very last roll of the day. We heard it was potentially a minor curb clip with everything checking out OK afterwards. For Sunday, unfortunately, some of their drivers weren’t feeling well, but they were going to come out with one new driver so quorum could be kept. But then, Sunday morning, they had to scratch fully, but still doing their chores so the remaining teams could keep going. Dedication!

Solaris on Saturday

• CIA. CIA was out with 3 buggies this weekend both days. By the end of the day Sunday they were racking up impressive rollouts and roll counts considering it was only the first weekend. All of their returning drivers have already reached the max carryover for the fall, and Kaylan in Emperor is leading the pack with an impressive 17 rolls in one weekend!

CIA’s 3 buggies on the back hills

• Fringe. Fringe was out both days with a total of 3 buggies, including a new driver in Burnout on Saturday, making it around the course without any issues. During one roll Blackbird did loose a rear hatch in the chute, but otherwise no incidents to report and Fringe was rolling smoothly.

Burnout making its way through the chute on Saturday

• Robobuggy. Robobuggy was out with Short Circut both days, Saturday just getting in their typical roll(s) before the start. On Sunday though, with so few teams out, Robobuggy joined the rolls order for the first half of the day, which we think is the first time an autonomous team was in the rolls order equally with the other teams!

Short Circuit- rolling with the rest

• SDC. After caping in the spring but not making it out for RD24, Lust made its freerolls debut this weekend! The design and details are very characteristic of SDC, and you can see many photos in our gallery. By all accounts Lust was rolling at least as smoothly as any other SDC buggy. SDC were moving quickly around the course with their usual high rollouts given the warm roads.

Lust making an appearance

• Spirit. Once again, Spirit led things off this year with the first roll of the day. Like many other orgs, no incidents to report. Most notably from Spirit they had two new drivers (in Zuke and Invisicd) out over the two days, each rolling around the course very smoothly.

Spirit preparing for Hill 2