It was Great Race Weekend in Pittsburgh, which means no permits for Sunday Rolls. In past years that meant cancelling the full weekend, but this crew didn’t let that stop them; they still rolled on Saturday morning. This was a very efficient day of rolls, with almost no incidents to speak of. The teams got a lot of practice and another returning organization made their season debut, read on!

Who’s that coming up the hill?

• As I mentioned in the intro, this was a very smooth day of rolls. No spins or other safety incidents to speak of. The closest thing were some geese and deer to be chased off the course, and one odd Robobuggy roll (see right & below). Even the joggers and bikers we behaving for the most part. This meant we got through the order 6.5 times even with 7 orgs participating.
  

Caption this picture

• A quick update on rolls counts 3 weeks in. We have two clear leaders with Goldfinch and Paranoia’s drivers over 20 rolls already. Many other orgs are accumulating rolls and picking up speed. Noticeably, Paranoia, Goldfinch, Kingfisher, and Raptor (on her first day!) were moving very well & quickly through the chute. The BAA and SDC’s TJ have partnered again to bring you views of chute lines, and they can be seen in our gallery.

A Solaris chute line

• Apex. Apex was out with 2 buggies. Solaris especially was moving through the chute turn well, and Molotov which has been slow in the past during rolls was no slouch, either. They also seemed to have quite a large group out around the course.

Molotov transiton

• CIA. Another 4 buggy day for CIA. Their buggies were all decked out in their usual tech, and they had the usual large contingent of folks around the course. Goldfinch and Kingfisher moved very quickly around the course. Emperor was moving a little slower than it has recently, and Roadrunner’s new driver has made progress to be off any bags.

Emperor tech-d out

• Fringe. Bermuda and Blind Faith both had a few wobbles in chute turns this week, but the reverse trike design was very forgiving in the handling and nothing close to an incident was seen. Baltic is looking very solid on each roll, never much to report there.

Baltic at Hill 4

• PiKA. Pi Kappa Alpha returned to the course much earlier than last year. The bring a new-to-Pike-but-not-new-to-buggy driver for Raptor, and you could tell she was excited. After her first roll everyone at the finish line heard a loud yell from Lara as she completed her first roll. She was off bags by the end of the day and gathered some good speed going into the turn. Overall, a very solid first day out for those brothers!

Raptor’s first roll of the season

• Robobuggy. Robobuggy rolled both buggies this weekend, usually one at a time. Their final roll they rolled both, culminating in a freeroll pass, a follow car pass of 1 buggy, and the RC driver hoping out of the car and running behind encouraging the pusher in the chute (see above photo!). Both were then removed before the back hills.

Short Circuit passing NAND

• SDC. Paranoia continues to scream around the course, it seems SDC wants to make rolls closer to full Raceday rehearsal as early as they can. They were carrying Paranoia with their strap system and even doing the countdown at Hill 2, moving before the 5 second count.

Floating the Paranoia

• Spirit. Spirit brought out 3 buggies and seemed to back off just a bit from their speed last week. It paid off as they did not repeat any spins (or even close calls really, that I could see).

Spirit formation