Over this Homecoming weekend, we got to welcome the teams back to the course after Fall Break. We’re solidly into the second half of the semester, but though temperatures are dropping, this weekend was nice and dry.
| Org | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Apex | Helios, Molotov, Scorch, Kerosene | Solaris, Molotov, Kerosene |
| CIA | Starling, Goldfinch | Kingfisher |
| DG | Banta | — |
| Fringe | Blind Faith, Beetle, Blackbird | Blackbird, Bermuda, Beetle |
| Robobuggy | Short Circuit | — |
| SDC | Paranoia, Lust, Vice | Paranoia, Lust, Avarice, Vice |
| Spirit | Seraph, Kingpin, Inviscid, Zuke | Zuke, Inviscid, Kingpin* |
Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) | Sunday Gallery (upload)
General Observations
- Bagged buggies are still out on the course — normally at this point in the year, I’d be attributing it to the Greek orgs coming out after recruitment, but it’s the independents on bags. We saw a couple teams bring out some buggies for the first time this year, another is that many orgs are working to get pass tests done in anticipation of Mini Raceday.
- The CMU police did not have a good weekend. There were two separate police incidents on Sunday. On the front hills, someone decided to hit-and-run a CMUPD patrol car. Later that morning, some “tired looking” officers showed up at the chute barricade trying to get back to campus. At least these ones talked to the barricaders.
- All the Pittsburgh wildlife is back in full force. I had to do some deer herding near the chute, and the large flocks of geese on Flagstaff were starting to encroach on the back hills as well. Finally, we had one major squirrel-based incident, described in further detail below.
Team Observations
Apex — Kerosene was out on the course for the first time this year! It does look like they made some significant changes to the pushbar geometry since last year. Most of their rolls looked clean, but they did have an unfortunate encounter with a squirrel. The squirrel tried to cross in front of one of their leading buggies, causing a cascade of stops around transition flag.
CIA — CIA didn’t bring out the full army of support, and from the outside seemed like they came in to this weekend with intention. On Saturday, the goal looked to be completing pass tests for both Goldfinch and Starling, as they started attempts on the 2nd round through the rolls order. On Sunday, only Kingfisher was out. This was the first time I had seen someone practicing full front hills, so they may have focused on either just getting more rolls with Kingfisher, or training their push team.
DG — DG only came out on Saturday this weekend, which is commendable, considering they also had to do Greek Sing that night (changed this year to be in the Fall). Banta is still rolling well around the course, and while their driver seems settled in, they have some details to nail down for the rest of their team. It looks like they were missing a rear hatch on one of their rolls, and a pusher took a little spill on Hill 4.
Fringe — We got to see both Beetle and Blackbird out for the first time this semester. Between having fewer orgs on Sunday and rolling Blackbird with Apex as well, they were able to get a good number of rolls into this single weekend. Having these new buggies already bagged did turn out convenient, as Fringe was also able to get through a couple pass tests as well. There were some hiccups here, as Blind Faith’s driver braked and came to a stop during one of their attempts, though 2 of them went fine.
Robobuggy — Robobuggy only came out for Saturday, but appeared to have both manpower and technical difficulties. Throughout the morning, they got Short Circuit up on the sidewalk after the chute, rather than pushing the backhills. After one roll, they seemed to spin near the end of the chute, but it wasn’t clear if this was controlled or uncontrolled.
SDC — SDC had all of their buggies out this weekend, despite being down pushers, as I saw a couple people running to do Hill 2-5s. Aside from this, it was a quiet week for SDC. Vice seems to have gotten a new windshield since last rolls, trading out its old gold mirroring for a standard silver one. Unlike the other orgs, SDC has not spent its time or focus trying to get pass tests done yet.
Spirit — After 2 weeks off, the safety chair advised teams to ease their drivers back in to things, but Seraph started out the weekend flying. She looked on pace with where she was before break, taking a clean line through the chute, and rolling a ways up Hill 3. Both Zuke and Inviscid also got through the weekend incident-free, but Kingpin continued to struggle. During the first roll on Saturday, KP’s line into the chute was a bit shaky, but improved throughout the morning. However on Sunday, she had repeated issues with windshield fogging and hit the curb just after the Hill 2 pushoff.
Thanks to Guillermo for pictures 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)