This is a jammed-packed rolls report with only Truck Weekend between us and Raceday. No further intro needed!

One of several closer-than-you-want pass tests this weekend

• With so few days of rolls this spring, the teams brought their A game this weekend to get as many rolls in as possible. Several teams banded together to share their roll slots to make the most efficient use of time. This also led to a couple confusing rolls or close calls. We had many pass tests this weekend, with a few leading to various issues:
  • Emperor passed Kingfisher on one roll, then they tried the opposite, and Kingfisher took a little longer to catch up, and passed Emperor in the chute turn! The next roll they tried again, with her passing just before the chute flag.
  • Molotov or Solaris during a pass test slowed down to the point of a stop, and caused some confusion and a pause on rolls.
  • Blueshift, participating in another orgs rolls, was not given a chute flag, and kept going straight before braking lightly before the chute barricades.
  • Not a planned pass test, but Raptor almost caught Avarice in the chute; both made it through cleanly.
  • A bagged Hydra was passed by Kraken and came to a full stop mid-chute, with a pusher sprinting back to grab it.
  • A Spirit pass happened late near the monument, leading to a tight formation entering the chute.
    

The rolls board shows how teams were banding together

• The weather cooperated this weekend. A rainy forecast on Saturday held off just enough, with the drops starting to fall at 9:20. Sunday started very cold, in the upper 20s, but the teams came out to roll, and it ended up being a sunny and productive day.

Apex pass test in progress, right where you want it to happen!

• Many teams were working on building speed and fine-tuning lines for Raceday. Hill 1s were happening most rolls. Apex, CIA, and SigNu are all fully qualified. I’ve done my best to highlight the status of all the other orgs as well below. Corrections are welcome.
  

With all the Hill 1s, Sweeps created Lane “0” for buggies to go back down the hill safely

• Apex. Apex has qualified all 4 buggies for Raceday. Notably, Helios was driving fairly erratically on Saturday, with some sharp turns and wobbles, but made it through the chute OK each time. Sunday she was looking better.

Helios, now with primer!

• Atlas. They rolled early with the robots. We didn’t hear much of note, so we file this in the “no news is good news” category.

Monaco Sneaking into the frame

• CIA. CIA rolled with SigNu both days leading to fully qualifying all 5 buggies for Raceday. Otherwise it was a quiet week, good driving and good pushers certainly makes it look like they will contend again this year. The only incident to report (aside from the pass test shenanigans) is one of their buggies lost a sensor or camera in the chute, but the wire was still attached, leading to it bouncing along for most of Hill 3 before being scooped up.

Emperor waits to help on a pass test

• DG. DG was only out on Saturday this weekend, which is a little surprising given they need a significant number of rolls if they want to qualify their two drivers. Their veteran driver seems safe, needing only two more rolls. Their new driver still needs 7 more rolls and a pass test, which may be a tall order. Still, when they are out, Insite rolls quite quickly given the age of that buggy.

Insite

• Fringe. Fringe has Burnout qualified for Raceday, with their other 4 buggies needing 4 or less rolls each, and Blueshift still needing a pass test. They were out in force on Saturday, but maybe the cold kept them limited Sunday, with a much lighter turnout. To illustrate how busy the roads were, at one point Sunday, Helios was pushed by Fringe on Hill 3, the pure white primer of Helios being confused for Blueshift or NB2025. Do we need to change its name to Belios now?

NB2025

• PiKA. Pike shared the course with SDC on both days of rolls. Raptor was still sporting bags for much of the weekend, but picked up speed by the end of Sunday. Their driver needs 3 more rolls and a pass test to qualify.

Raptor

• Robobuggy. Out both days in the early light. We heard they may have had a small loss of mass on the freeroll. NAND didn’t travel all the way around, but Short Circuit went around the course twice without issues.

Preparing for a good push

• SAE. Barbie accrued 10 rolls this weekend by sharing time with SigEp and maybe some other orgs too- we were losing track in the chute. They are now just 2 rolls shy of qualifying.

Is that a Sweeps chair pushing Barbie?

• SDC. SDC, by sharing time with Pike, qualified 3 of their 4 buggies. Only Avarice still needs qualified, and she is just missing a pass test. They were clearly the fastest heading into the chute out of all the orgs this weekend. They also had a gnarly incident where a fairing came off of Paranoia at the end of the chute, and was shredded under the wheel. An SDC pusher came to grab it from the alumni in the chute, quipping “I promise I’m an SDC pusher and not a Pike mechanic!”

Paranoia, with some orange wheels

• SigEp. Sig Ep shared time with SAE getting Baracuda qualified with a veteran driver, despite not rolling in the fall at all. They still need rolls for Hydra (2) and Kraken (8?). They had one of the more concerning incidents, as they helped SAE with a pass test, no bags were placed on Hydra (or they flew off), leading to a very late pass in the vicinity of the chute turn. They made it through fine, as you can see in the photo here.

Barbie passed Hydra just before this picture

• SigNu. SigNu is fully qualified for Raceday with a weekend to spare. Both Krait and Jaeger rolled mostly cleanly and with some solid speed. Jaeger took a few wide lines and approached the outer bales, but got through each time.

Jaeger Hill 2

• Spirit. Spirit qualified Zuke, Kingpin and Seraph this weekend, with Inviscid needing only a pass test and a second Zuke driver needing 3 more rolls. They had the most noticeable incident of the weekend, with Inviscid spinning a full 180 in the chute and tapping the inner haybales. EMS quickly cleared the driver who was extracted, and they rolled later in the day without issues.

The Spirit fleet on Hill 2