The Buggy teams returned to the course this past weekend after a week break. Temperatures cooled off, but the buggy teams were heating up with some full Hill 1s, another returning Greek team, and a few incidents that come with teams building speed and helping new drivers try out the course. All the hallmarks of an exciting weekend of rolls- read on for more!

SDC had the most buggies out this weekend- almost the full rainbow

• After too-warm and too-long of a summer (in your reporter’s opinion) fall arrived in Pittsburgh this weekend! The mornings were noticeably cooler (although still in the upper 50s at first roll). It made for beautiful days out on the course. Sweepers were busier with a few early leaves and lots of acorns.

• We had 8 teams out this weekend, including the return of Delta Gamma to the course. New drivers continued to learn the ins and outs of the course which led to a few incidents. The hay bales were put to work this weekend with at least three bale contact incidents. They did their job very well.
  

Vanity with many bags for her new driver

• The barricaders’ jobs seemed easier this weekend, and we had very few incursions to report. There was a family of very inquisitive deer on the backside of Flagstaff Hill that had to be gently herded across the road and off into the deeper depths of Schenley. I saw at least one squirrel darting in front of a buggy (Scorch in this case).

Curious deer on the freeroll were chased away by yours truly

• Apex. A combo of 3 buggies from Apex were present over the weekend. Scorch especially was rolling well, but we can’t say the same about Firefly. Most of the season we have been hearing some kind of rubbing noise on the freeroll, and this weekend one roll in particular it was noticeably not gaining speed during the downhill and went through the chute very slow. The next roll it was going faster but we still heard that click-clack noise suggesting something wasn’t right.

Firefly on Hill 4

• CIA. CIA continued to show off smooth driving all weekend with no incidents. Saturday they set up shop at the base of Hill 1 and were doing full Hill 1s for most or all of their rolls. Sunday they were back at their typical spot outside Highmark. Otherwise, we don’t have much to report!

Roadrunner pushed up freshly-paved Hill 1

• DG. Insite is back! The sisters of Delta Gamma returned to the course on Saturday. Insite was taking its typical quick freeroll lightly-bagged all day. DG also had a new driver earn two rolls while sharing with their veteran driver- which we hope is a sign of continued growth for the team!

Insite through the turn

• Fringe. Fringe brought out a good number of buggies this weekend, but unfortunately we need to talk about Burnout again. It seems there is something of a curse developing here, as Burnout again did not get any credited rolls this weekend. This time it seemed the transition might have been missed and she approached the monument, and then took the chute turn at the wrong time and had a glancing blow on the bales and stopped. We are all rooting for Burnout to get around the course! Baltic made its first appearance since the first weekend of rolls on Sunday with a new driver.

Proof of Burnout’s persistance

• Robobuggy. Robobuggy was rolling Sunday morning, and rolled at their previous standard time of “before rolls started”. Sadly, we don’t have any pictures of them this week- but if any are uploaded we can add them in retroactively! Update: we did have a few photos added after publication, so go find them in our Sunday gallery!

Early morning for Robobuggy

• SAE. SAE was not on the buggy course for rolls this weekend, but they did make an appearance on Saturday setting up for Donut Dash – so shoutout to them! Many other buggy teams put together Donut Dash teams that had success.

• SDC. SDC was out in force this weekend. They built some significant speed on some of their buggies, and Vanity returned to the course after a long absence. A few hiccups came along with the speed and numbers this weekend. Avarice was fishtailing a bit post-turn (bringing to mind the early years of that buggy) but made it through the chute. On Saturday, Inferno fishtailed and skidded into the bales. Vanity at the end of Sunday turned far too late and hit the outer bales with some force. Both drivers were quickly extracted and cleared.

Bane at the transition

• SigEp. SigEp brought two buggies out on Saturday – Hydra and Kraken. On one roll Kraken (with several bags) was sent before Hydra, which resulted in SigEp’s only incident of the day. Hydra had nearly caught up to Kraken near the monument, and the driver wisely stopped rather than get too close. We didn’t get a shot of Kraken this weekend- if you have pictures from rolls please upload them to our gallery!

We somehow didn’t get a picture of Kraken this weekend- but here’s an AI-generated one- not quite the same :p

• Spirit. Spirit was smooth this weekend except for an early stop on the first roll Sunday. In the chute they are occasionally doing the familiar powerslide, but no spins to report this weekend. Their backhills pushers are already practicing Raceday form with the familiar call of “Spirit…ready…PUSH!”

Seraph flying up the back hills