Well, clearly I angered the buggy gods by mocking the normalcy of rolls last week. While Sunday rolls were thwarted again (for the Great Race, not weather this time), Saturday was jam-packed with mishaps of all sizes.
| Org | Saturday |
|---|---|
| Apex | Solaris, Molotov, Scorch |
| CIA | Emperor, Roadrunner, Starling |
| Fringe | Baltic, Bermuda, Blind Faith |
| Robobuggy | Short Circuit, NAND |
| SDC | Paranoia, Lust, Avarice, Vice |
| Spirit | Inviscid, Seraph, Zuke, Kingpin |
Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload)
General Observations
- Something in the air has changed, as this weekend felt like a proper fall in Pittsburgh. We’ve escaped hot and sticky for crisp and cool, great weather for rolls!
- The teams at the start of the morning also felt more dynamic. Maybe it’s the pre-planned lack of Sunday rolls that meant everyone was dedicated to coming out on Saturday, but overall there seemed to be an abundance of people and energy.
- The concept of the roads being closed continues to be difficult to grasp — it seems like there was more traffic to Phipps than usual, bicyclists asking if the roads were closed even for them, and a stray forklift left on the backhills
- This weekend got to showcase the miscellaneous dangers of buggy. From a pusher tripping on wires hooked up to the side of their buggy, to some SDC pushers nearly tripping over themselves in a race on the back hills, and several peoples’ toes being run over by their buggies. All this plus a crash, now the only thing we’re missing is a dive for a pushbar
Team Observations
Apex — We saw the usual fleet of Solaris, Scorch, and Molotov out this morning. Solaris in particular was rolling quickly throughout the morning and was in the top 5 fastest coming in to the chute (based on my calibrated eyeballs and also some cameras) . Molotov had an unfortunately eventful morning, having to stop by transition after a biker entered the course from Panther Hollow and also had to avoid a deer later in the morning.
CIA — CIA remains dominant with either Emperor or Starling being the best rolling this morning. Their times coming in to the chute were within a couple tenths of a second, and their rollups looked pretty comparable. In addition to these two, they also brought out Roadrunner for the first time this year. CIA also seemed to be the victims of Robobuggy’s ball experiment (more about that later) and I witnessed some fairly impressive pushers clearing the balls out of their way while trying to push.
Fringe — Fringe had a mixed bag this week, with decently good highs, and slightly bad lows. Bermuda was out for a single roll in the morning, and Faith had several good rolls as well. However, it seemed like their new Baltic driver was having some trouble acclimating to her first morning on the course. We saw some wobbly steering coming in to the chute, along with a stop on the backhills when she got close to a forklift that was left parked in the street, and another controlled stop at transition in her second roll. Hopefully with some more time and practice, she’ll get more comfortable on the course and in the buggy.
Robobuggy — This morning, both Short Circuit and NAND arrived to the top of the hill sporting some new tennis balls to cap the ends of the pushbar. While we don’t know what purpose these balls are meant to serve, it doesn’t seem that they were very attached, as by the time they made it across the finish line the balls had disappeared. This raises the important questions: would Robobuggy be DQ’ed for a loss of mass? And if they DQ both their buggies, who wins the Robotic Division?
SDC — SDC’s full rainbow of buggies made their appearance this weekend. They had Paranoia, Lust, Avarice, and Vice out for the first roll, before focusing on the last 3 for the rest of the morning. All of their buggies continue to be bagged. They may not have speed coming in to the chute, or enough juice to pull them up Hill 3, but the light buggies are still plenty fast to run with up the back hills.
Spirit — Spirit started their morning strong, bringing pushers, catchers, and a follow car to the course in addition to all 4 of their buggies. Both Seraph and Zuke looked fast, but Seraph did a slightly better job at keeping that speed through the chute. On the 3rd round through the rolls order, they brought out Kingpin for its second roll of the year. However, the driver tried to cut in too tight to the chute, putting KP into the bales at the apex of the chute, right by the bollard. While the driver is OK, it sounds like there might need to be some repair work for the buggy. Finally, on their last round of rolls, Inviscid had what looked like a small slip in the chute, but recovered at the cost of some speed and was passed by Zuke at the Hill 3 pickup.
Thanks to Guillermo, Rob, and Lewis for helping with notes and photo/video coverage this week!
If you’d like to come out to gather notes or pictures during rolls, feel free to sign up here. Links to upload photos are there, and if you would like to be credited, reach out via email (data@cmubuggy.org) or on Discord (@Barsham). Additional notes and corrections to this report are welcome, reach out via email (jameswong@cmubuggy.org) or on Discord (@jamestwong)