Posted on | by Bryan Arsham

Table of Contents: Intro & 1920; 1921-1923; 1924-1927; 1928-1932; 1933-1935; 1936-1939; 1940-1945; 1946-1949; 1950-1953; 1954-1956; 1957-1959; 1960-1963; 1964-1966; 1967-1969; 1970-1973; 1974-1976; 1977-1979; 1980-1983; 1984-1986; 1987-1989; 1990-1993; 1994-1996; 1997-1999; 2000-2003; 2004-2006; 2007-2009; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; Recap & 2020; 2021; 2022

This week, the 100+ Years of Buggy History series continues on its “fourth school year post-Raceday” schedule and brings you…2022! After a 2 year postponement, we’re finally able to celebrate Buggy100! It’s the first Raceday of the post-COVID era, though “post-COVID” is a bit of a misnomer since COVID affects at least 1 team on Raceday. It’s also the first Raceday of the post-Skibo Gym era, meaning one fewer lane for teams to roll in. And mother nature made for a rocky return in the Spring. But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Raceday: Prelims on Friday, April 8 at 7:30am; Finals on Saturday, April 9 at 8:00am

Sweepstakes Committee: Frank Li (Chair); Sydney Baker (Ass. Chair); Nahyun Kim (Safety); Vidya Shastry, Elizabeth Zapanta (Design)

Men’s Results: (1) SDC A – Inferno (2:08.74); (2) PiKA A – Banshee (2:13.59); (3) CIA A – Emperor (2:14.13); (4) Apex A – Firefly (2:18.64); (5) Spirit B – Seraph (2:21.33); (6) SigNu A – Bungarus Krait (2:22.72)

Women’s Results: (1) Spirit A – Seraph (2:45.18); (2) PiKA A – Banshee (2:46.95); (3) Fringe A – Burnout (2:49.05); (4) Spirit B – Mapambazuko (2:55.88); (5) Fringe B – Baltic (2:57.18); (6) PiKA B – Cleona (2:57.85)

Design Comp: (1) CIA – Kingfisher; (2) CIA – Roadrunner; (3) Fringe – Burnout

Other Awards: (People’s Choice) Fringe – Burnout; (Anne Witchner Chairman’s Choice) DG; (Tom Wood Spirit of Buggy) Apex; (T-Shirt) DG

Weather: Cloudy with occasional rain, 38-45 Degrees on Friday; Rain/Hail, 37-45 on Saturday

Buggy Book: 2022 Buggy Book Link

Raceday Video Playlist: 2022 Race Playlist

Photo Gallery: 2021-2022 Photos

Prediction Score: 34/55 Men’s, 9/28 Women’s (Compubookie); 27/55 Men’s, 18/36 Women’s (Jeremy Tuttle)

  • Buggy is Back (For Real This Time) – Buggy may have started back up in the Spring of 2021, but with COVID restrictions in place, it looked pretty different than Buggy of years past. But by the Fall of 2021, most of CMU’s COVID restrictions had been lifted. And with that, Buggy returned in earnest with regular rolls. By the Spring of 2022, all of CMU’s restrictions had been lifted, and teams were able to return to their normal shop usage and access. In addition, drivers were once again able to share buggies (with a sanitation protocol in place), meaning that Raceday was back on as normal.
  • Mother Nature Has Other Ideas – Of course, there’s no such thing as unfettered good news in Buggy. Students who had no Raceday in 2020, and couldn’t really participate in 2021, were dealt a blow in the Spring of 2022 by mother nature, which decided that practice rolls would be optional. Because of rain, snow, and below-freezing temperatures throughout the Spring, plus a mix-up involving EMS on what was originally planned for the first weekend, Sweepstakes was only able to hold 3 total days of Rolls in the Spring. Of those 3 days, one was on Truck Weekend. By the weekend before Truck Weekend, only 6 total buggy-driver combinations had qualified for Raceday. The good news is that for Truck Weekend, Sweepstakes was able to extend the road permits for an extra hour. And with that extra hour and a suspension of the rules limiting the number of qualifying rolls a team could get on Truck Weekend and loosening pass test requirements, every buggy-driver combination was able to qualify for Raceday – that includes SigNu, who got 14 rolls in Krait on the Saturday of Truck Weekend (with the driver only leaving the buggy once, for a bathroom break) in order to qualify.
  • Highmark Center Construction Begins. COVID may have delayed it a bit, but by Raceday 2022, the old Skibo Gym was being torn down and replaced with the new Highmark Center (which would ultimately open in the Fall of 2024). The construction, and more specifically the construction barriers led to a couple of Buggy-specific changes. The first was that Drop Tests, which had previously been held on the sidewalk in front of Skibo Gym, had to be moved to the other side of the street, and now took place on the street itself between the curb and Lane 1, about ⅓ of the way up Hill 1. The second was that due to the risk posed by the concrete barriers placed on the road/sidewalk to keep people out of the construction area, Lane 3 was deemed to be off-limits, leaving each heat limited to 2 teams each. This may have worked out for the best, though, as this limited the likelihood of a pass in the Chute, something that Sweepstakes was particularly concerned about for 2022 due to the lack of rolls (and pass tests) in the Spring. The construction also had a bit of an unexpected consequence – the rules related to the placement of the Starting Line needed to be rewritten, as the location of the starting line was specifically tied to the corner of Skibo Gym.

Skibo Gym begins to be torn down to be replaced by the Highmark Center, one of two major construction projects on the Buggy course (the other being the rebuild of Scaife Hall).

    • Mother Nature; It’s Not Just For Rolls Anymore – Of course, a semester full of rain issues isn’t gonna just stop when it comes to Raceday. Friday’s races went off on schedule on a cold, overcast day, though a brief rain shower during the Men’s heats did lead to a delay. That became a bit less of a concern than prior years though, as Sweepstakes was able to get extended permits for both days of Raceday, and with the extended time Sweepstakes was able to wait out the rain and finish all of Friday’s races. Saturday was a different story. Overnight rain had left the course wet, forcing Sweepstakes to wait for the roads to dry. Unfortunately, shortly before the races were finally set to start rolling, more rain came and re-wet the roads. This was enough to set everything back, and by 10:30 it became clear that the roads would not dry in time. So the Finals were cancelled, and everyone was sent home. But not before first taking a Buggy100 group photo. And the 2 hour rain delay did add a new feature to the Raceday broadcast, as the commentators conducted several interviews with current students and alumni to kill time while everyone waited out the roads.
    • Chaos in the Rain – Success –  Friday may have been dry enough to race, but as noted above, it wasn’t completely free of rain. Things went well through the Women’s races, with only one Reroll needed, as Fringe B’s Baltic stopped behind DG A’s Brazen to avoid a pass. But dark skies approached as we reached Men’s Heat 8, and a very quick drizzle led to an 8 minute delay. With rain in the forecast for Saturday, Sweepstakes took that time to make an unusual decision. In order to make sure that the Women’s races were completed. Sweepstakes opted to pause the Men’s races and run the Women’s Reroll to complete the field. Coincidentally, Men’s Heat 8 was a solo buggy heat, featuring…Fringe’s Baltic. So once Fringe Men’s A crossed the Finish Line for Men’s Heat 8, Baltic passed drops (though it was DQ’d for a loss of mass when a wheel cover flew off at the Transition Flag), and then took that 10 minute break to get fixed up before heading right back to the Starting Line for the Women’s Reroll. The move was successful for Sweepstakes, as the Reroll got off clean and Baltic (rolling without the wheel cover now) crossed the Finish Line putting Fringe B in 5th in the Women’s Races.
    • Chaos in the Rain – Failure – Once the Women’s Reroll was completed, Sweepstakes went back to the regular schedule, with Men’s Heat 9 up next. But the skies continued to get darker, and a light drizzle started as Spirit A’s Kingpin and Apex B’s Nova were brought to the Starting Line. Sweepstakes decided to push through anyway, and the race went off while the roads were still pretty dry. As the buggies began their freeroll though, the rain started to pick up, with drops visible on the broadcast cameras (and likely on the buggy windshields) and the roads quickly dampening. Unfortunately, rain + urethane tires is a poor mix, and as Kingpin turned into the Chute, it lost traction on the now-wet asphalt, causing the buggy to spin out. The spin then caused Apex’s driver to have to maneuver around Kingpin, and to do so, the driver had to apply the brakes pretty hard. Apex made it through the Chute without incident, but with a much slower time. The good news for both teams was that Sweepstakes understood the problem that the rain caused, and approved a Reroll of the heat for later in the day. And there was more good news – after a 1 hour, 20 minute rain delay, the roads dried enough that races could resume! But the chaos didn’t end there. Spirit A unfortunately crossed the Lane 1-2 boundary line on Hill 2 and was DQ’d for a Lane Violation. Meanwhile for Apex, the hard application of brakes during Men’s Heat 9 blew out Nova’s brakes completely. So 2 of Apex’s builders headed back to their shop and had to rebuild the entire braking system in the 2 hours between Men’s Heat 9 and the ultimate Men’s Reroll. Because an entirely new system was put in, Sweepstakes required that Nova pass drops before the Reroll heat, in addition to regular Drops after the race. Apex’s mechanics came back mere moments before they needed to head to Drops, and the mechanics reinstalled the steering and braking systems. It all worked out though – Nova was able to pass drops both times and put up an 11th place time, missing the Top 10 by a mere 0.25 seconds. You can hear more about the story of rebuilding Nova’s brakes on the Open Door Policy: The Complete Story of Apex Buggy episode of Chute The Sh!t.
      • When is a DQ Not a DQ – Weather didn’t just affect teams on the course. 10 Men’s teams and 10 Women’s teams came out to the course on Saturday, ready to compete in Finals. But by the time the Finals races were scheduled to begin, the field was down 3 teams. In order to complete their chores of clearing the course of debris after putting out the bales, Fringe brought out some leaf blowers. But with overnight rain making the straw wet, the electric leaf blowers ran out of power without clearing the debris. So they switched to gas blowers, which were far more effective. Once the chores were down, heavy rain started to fall again, so to protect all of their equipment, Fringe brought everything inside their truck – including the gas leaf blowers. Unfortunately for Fringe, the Fire Safety Inspections took place before Fringe had a chance to take those leaf blowers back out of the truck, resulting in a fire safety DQ for the full organization. However, what mother nature giveth, mother nature also taketh away. Because the rain ultimately lead to Finals being cancelled, the day was deemed to have “never happened” – which meant that Fringe’s DQ didn’t happen, either.
      • Drops Confusion – SAE had a reasonably successful return to buggy, passing PiKA in Men’s Heat 1 and winning the heat. But the rust from COVID led to plenty of confusion during drops. When Eileen reached the brake line during the test, the driver failed to stop. This would have normally resulted in a Drops DQ. But SAE argued that throughout the year, the Safety Chair had yelled “BRAKE!” when the buggy reached the brake line. During Raceday, the Safety Chair did not do so, leading SAE to claim that their driver didn’t know when to brake. There was some back-and-forth over whether the Safety Chair had, in fact, set the precedent for yelling “BRAKE” during drops and whether the driver should have known to brake anyway (based on the line and the flag). The judges weighed the factors, and decided that in light of the multi-year lack of buggy and in the interest of promoting participation in the sport, particularly for a time that was outside of a trophy position, they would grant SAE a reroll. With the rules now clarified, SAE was able to pass drops after their reroll.
      • Buggy100 Is Finally Celebrated – The 100th Anniversary of Buggy was originally scheduled to be celebrated in 2020, but with the cancellation of Carnival in 2020, and Virtual Carnival in 2021, the festivities were pushed to 2022. Spring Carnival 2022 fully embraced the celebration, with a number of Buggy-themed events and activities throughout the weekend. In addition to the Buggy Alumni Association hosting the first ever Buggy Bash in the main tent, the University Archives had an entire exhibit focusing on the 100 year history of buggy, complete with several retired buggies on display. The CMU marketing team got involved by putting lightpost banners on light poles throughout campus and down Frew Street, celebrating the 100 year history of the sport. And the school even held my personal favorite activity – a Buggy Escape Room! Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Volos had been stolen by a rival team, and groups of up to 6 were tasked with trying to free Volos from captivity! The escape room was a hit and quickly “sold out” to Carnival attendees. But those pesky KKG rivals really knew what they were doing – rumor has it that only 3 groups all weekend were actually able to free the buggy. Maybe those rivals have King Eider hiding somewhere too…

      The ribbon cutting on the opening of the “Nuts, Bolts, & Wheels: 100+ Years of Buggy” exhibit at Hunt Library, part of the Buggy100 celebration. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

      • COVID Lockdown Ends, But COVID Doesn’t – By Raceday 2022, the COVID vaccine was widespread and people were mostly back to regular activities. But that doesn’t mean that COVID suddenly disappeared. The SDC Men’s and Women’s B teams were unfortunately forced to DQ for a roster violation after their planned driver came down with COVID at the start of Carnival. The team was allowed to roll Havoc, their C team buggy, with their B team pushers in order to give them a chance to participate, but the buggy/driver switch resulted in an unofficial time, and both teams were required to hold the buggy back roughly 30 seconds in order to avoid interfering with the other team in the heat. And COVID didn’t end at Carnival. A number of Buggy students and alumni reported testing positive for COVID once they got home after Carnival. Buggy – it’s not just for humans (and robots, and dogs) anymore!
      • Bad Crash Ruins Family Weekend. The return to normal Rolls in the Fall Semester got off to a bit of a rocky start, after 1.5 years with no driver training. Rolls on October 10 (which happened to be Family Weekend) were cut short after a major incident shut things down. At 8:25, one of Fringe’s new drivers approached the Chute, but the buggy turned far too early, possibly due to either a lack of vision or a steering malfunction. Boson went nose first into the curb at full speed before the start of the bales, making a direct impact. The force of the impact destroyed several inches at the front of the buggy, and caused the driver to be partially ejected. Thankfully, the design of Fringe’s reverse trike buggies provided a bit of a buffer zone between the driver and the front of the buggy, avoiding a direct impact between driver and curb. Boson was forcibly retired and the driver was taken to the hospital, but even more thankfully avoided any major injury. It’s unclear from public records what caused the driver to slide forward in the crash, but a possible harness failure itself seemed to be the leading culprit.
      • Renewed Focus on Safety. The Boson crash did lead to a brief pause in Rolls, as Sweepstakes and CMU took a few weeks to take a deeper look into the safety of the existing buggies. CMU’s Environmental, Health and Safety reviewed and recommended that Sweepstakes adopt a plan for teams to more accurately track safety equipment and establish retirement plans, particularly harnesses and helmets, in order for teams to have records for when to replace the equipment and to track any alterations made. In addition, the Buggy Endowed Fund launched a harness improvement grant, to help fund new harnesses for teams whose existing harnesses were deemed to either be too old or inadequate, or where the age of the harness was unknown.
      • A New Broadcast. One of the more positive impacts of the COVID lockdowns at CMU was the University’s desire to run more virtual events, giving out-of-state alumni more of a chance to participate in the alumni experience. And with Mini-Raceday taking place during Homecoming 2021, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a virtual event. So Sweepstakes worked with CMU to live stream Mini-Raceday on Homecoming Saturday. Will Weiner made the trip out to do some “announcing” from the top of the Hill. But since the camera coverage was limited to the start and end of the rolls, the coverage also included a bunch of interviews with Sweepstakes and various team members. You can rewatch Mini-Raceday 2021 for yourself here: https://mediaservices.cmu.edu/media/2021+Buggy+Freeroll+Livestream/1_y1mgpx3l
      • Design Comp Qualification Opens Up. One thing Sweepstakes looked to do in the post-COVID era was to try and open up Design Competition to make it more…well, competitive. Back in the early 1950s, the Chairmen were tired of teams winning Design Competition for adding features to buggies that had no impact on the race itself (sorry, cigar lighters and parking lights), so they added a rule requiring a buggy to finish with a certain placing in order to qualify for the Design awards. The 2022 Sweepstakes, however, felt that the rule had overcompensated for the issue, and there are many factors outside of a team’s design that could result in them not finishing with a placing necessary to qualify for Design. So the chairmen voted to remove the placing requirement. Beginning with Design Competition 2022, as long as a buggy completed the course without a design-related DQ, it was eligible to win a Design award. And because of the Design Comp rule changes, Sweepstakes was able to announce the 6 finalists on Thursday. They were: Apex’s Nova and Solaris, CIA’s Kingfisher and Roadrunner, and Fringe’s Baltic and Burnout.
      • More Rule Changes. The Design Competition wasn’t the only rule to be modified. The Sweepstakes Bylaws underwent some updates for the 2021-2022 year, partially due to new rules being implemented, and partially due to prior rules being voted on but not actually added to the Bylaws document. Among the other new rules:
        • Organizations are now permitted to seek sponsorships, with some limitations around how the money can be used and how the sponsorships can be presented. In addition, any sponsorship is subject to Sweepstakes’ approval, and the amount of the sponsorship would be made known to all teams.
        • The list of people allowed to participate in Buggy was updated to include part-time students and graduate students.
        • Language around loaner buggies was added to the official rules.
        • Certain safety provisions were updated, including (a) the use of tinted goggles, (b) reflective vests for sweepers, (c) the requirement of Transition Flaggers, (d) making follow cars during Rolls optional, (e) pass tests no longer requiring a qualified driver/buggy combo to be passed, and (f) tying pass tests and drops to the buggy/driver combo rather than just the buggy.
        • Driving through a Stop Flag without stopping on Raceday is now a DQ, while the fine for driving through a Stop Flag during Rolls was significantly increased.
        • The definition of where the Starting Line is placed was revised, due to the construction replacing Skibo Gym (previously referenced in the Bylaws) with the Highmark Center
        • Mini-Raceday was officially codified in the rules at the start of Fall 2021, before being removed (along with a special COVID-19 Addendum) after Raceday 2022.
      • The Best Pushbar Shape. Teams have experimented with pushbars in the past, but no team moreso than CIA. And for Raceday 2022, they once again tried something new. But this time it wasn’t a dropping pushbar, or a different angle. In fact, this time it wasn’t the base of the pushbar at all that was affected. Instead, it was the handlebar of the buggy that they tinkered with. CIA debuted their new buggy Roadrunner, featuring a very unique curved handlebar (taking a different approach to the “curved pushbar” idea that Pioneers notoriously failed with on Valkyrie on 2005).

      CIA broke the pushbar mold again, trying a “dropping” handlebar that seemed to work far better than their dropping pushbars did.

      • New Buggies of 2022. COVID may have messed with some teams’ build schedules, but those that kept things going through COVID managed to produce new buggies for Raceday 2022. In addition to CIA’s new handlebar design on Roadrunner, Apex also decided to try something completely new for them, but a little more traditional for Buggy as a whole, and produced their first ever forward-trike, Nova. And Fringe kept its trend of builds, producing the new buggy, Burnout.
      • Unruly Guests at Rolls. When Rolls are back to normal, that also means the craziness of Rolls comes back too. And this year had plenty of it. Rolls throughout the year saw some occasional guests that were a little more standoffish than desired. During the first Spring Rolls on February 27, an old man found his way to the course, where he began yelling at both people and birds. So before one of Spirit’s rolls, the team sent down a lead car to make sure that the old man wasn’t in harm’s way. Later that day, while Sweepstakes was dealing with a stop in the Chute, a car driver honked his horn and then plowed through the outer barricade at the Schenley bridge. Thankfully, the car stopped before getting onto the course. But it wasn’t just people that made for a difficult Rolls. On October 2, the main antagonist for rolls was a new one for Buggy folks – Canadian Geese! Geese took over the Monument, and after peacefully watching some rolls, they decided they wanted to participate. The geese wreaked havoc on SDC’s Havoc, as well as Vanity, and Spirit’s Zuke and Seraph, causing them all to hit the brakes at the Transition Flag.

      Quack Quack, Mother Ducker

      • And Some “Dead” Ones Too – But it wasn’t just unwelcome guests causing chaos at Rolls. The first scheduled day of Rolls was Saturday, September 18, but those ended up being cancelled for a myriad of reasons – there were no police officers, the streets were being milled, and construction equipment and parked cars were left on the road in the line of drivers. The next day, Rolls did happen, but not without some difficulty as those construction vehicles left behind hard-to-remove debris (including car accident shrapnel). Then, on October 10, Sweepstakes was hit with yet another new Rolls malady – a dead body?! Nope, it was just a sleeping barricader. But a pedestrian walking by didn’t know that, and called 911, resulting in both CMU police and EMS both showing up before learning that sometimes barricaders are just asleep at the wheel.
      • Line Painting Is An Art, Not A Science – Weather didn’t just cause problems for buggies rolling; it also made lane line painting difficult as well. Between a lack of manpower and poor weather, Sweepstakes had trouble getting the lane lines painted on their normal schedule. But the troubles didn’t end there; when Sweepstakes was finally able to paint the lines, they discovered that the spray cans didn’t fit the line painting machines they had. So the folks who went out to help paint had to paint the lines by hand, holding the spray cans while walking up the hills. This resulted in lines for Raceday that, well… gave a general idea about what the lanes actually were.

      Introducing the Hill 1 Slalom course

      • Buggy Love – A bit of levity found its way to Spring Rolls. The CMU Reel Time Film Club decided to make a movie, with buggy as the setting! The Buggy Movie was a romcom, with the premise being 2 drivers from competing teams falling in love. We don’t know if the movie was ever actually made or released, but if anyone knows of its existence, hit us up – we’d love to watch it!
      • Other Notable Women’s Heats.
        • Women’s Heat 3 – The Women’s races were very clean throughout the day, with the only slight hiccup coming as previously mentioned in Women’s Heat 3, as Fringe B’s Baltic entered the freeroll closely behind DG A’s Brazen. Fringe initially set up for a risky inside pass as the buggies crossed the street at Westinghouse Pond, but the driver thought better of it and hit the brakes, resulting in a reroll.
        • Women’s Heat 2 – Women’s Heat 2 added some excitement, as SigEp A’s Kraken didn’t quite have the rollout that was expected, allowing SDC C’s Havoc to pass on the way up to Hill 3. SDC’s pushers maintained that lead through the rest of the backhills, finishing 3 seconds ahead.
        • Women’s Heat 4 – CIA B had a rough start to Women’s Heat 4, as the Hill 1 pusher slipped at the start, going down to one knee and sending the nose of Roadrunner high into the air. Buggy and pusher both recovered though and put up a trophy-worthy time, but some sloppiness by the mechanics in setting the buggy down resulted in a 5 second DQ.
        • Women’s Heat 7 – It turns out that in Women’s Heat 7, even the 34 second delay due to the COVID roster DQ (as noted above) wasn’t enough to keep SDC B down, as they managed to make up that time — and more — against Apex B’s Solaris, passing at the Hill 4-5 transition and winning the heat by nearly 6 seconds.
        • Women’s Heat 10 – Unfortunately, CIA wasn’t the only one that got a little sloppy with the mechanics placing the buggy down on the Starting Line. SDC A also waited a touch too long to put Inferno down on the line, not doing so until the Starter counted to 5. As a result, the monster roll that was 6 seconds faster than any other team was DQ’d for a 5 second violation. And with SDC B’s roster DQ, SDC would miss out on a Women’s trophy for the first time since the 2010 Fire Safety DQ (and first time since 2005 that SDC had a qualifying time but didn’t finish in a trophy position).
      • Other Notable Men’s Heats.
        • Men’s Heat 1 – The Men’s races got off to a bit of a rocky start, as PiKA had some issues with their buggy carrying straps. When the mechanics put Raptor down on the starting line, the front strap got caught on the buggy’s front wheel, pulling the buggy to a 45 degree angle for the start of the race. It also caused the mechanic to be a little too close to the buggy at the 5 second mark, resulting in a 5 Second DQ. SAE A’s Eileen managed to stay close the entire way around, passing PiKA on the Hill 3 rollout and taking the Heat by 5 seconds. SAE then went on to fail Drops but received a reroll, as further noted above.
        • Men’s Heat 4 – PiKA’s rough start to the Men’s races got a bit rougher in Men’s Heat 4. A pretty strong Hill 1 was quickly undone when PiKA B’s Hill 1 pusher shoved Cleona at the 1-2 Transition in Lane 2 and then decided to walk off the course through Lane 1, as CIA D’s Equinox was coming up right behind. CIA narrowly avoided direct contact with the PiKA pusher, but PiKA was ultimately DQ’d for a Lane Violation/Interference. It’s more unfortunate that the time itself was very strong, and would have given PiKA 2 teams in the Top 4.
        • Men’s Heat 8 – As noted above, no amount of tape could help Fringe A’s Baltic in Men’s Heat 8. Rolling alone, Fringe tried to play it extra safe by loading up their wheel fairings with duct tape. But as Baltic reached the transition flag, the cold weather effect and bumps in the road combined to cause the buggy’s front right fairing to fly off, resulting in a Loss of Mass DQ.
      • The Exhibition Roundup – 2022. Since 2022 offered the first real Raceday since 2019, plenty of former Buggy participants were back and looking to push. In order to get it all in, Sweepstakes tried something new and split up the Exhibitions over 2 days. Both days of Exhibitions were scheduled to take place at the start of the day, but with rain the forecast on Friday, Sweepstakes decided to get the real races in first, and then tack on the Exhibitions at the end of the day. This left 2022 as the rare time when a 1-day Raceday had non-robotic, non-timing heat exhibitions, though neither of the robotic teams hit the course in 2022.
        • Joanne Tsai Memorial – In the summer of 2020, Joanne Tsai, the driver of Apex’s Azula, sadly lost her battle with leukemia. In her memory, the 2022 Sweepstakes Committee organized a bone marrow drive during Spring Carnival, and Friday’s timing heat was turned over to Apex to honor her legacy. Apex donated Azula to her family as a memorial to her, but for 2022, the Apex pushers donned their Azula shirts as they kicked off Raceday 2022 in the Timing Heat. Andre Gutierrez, Maxwell Johnson, Nico Mignucci, Bethany Bauer, and Ryan Huang pushed Firefly around the course in 3:14.47.
        • Exhibition Heat 2 – The second exhibition race of Friday took place after the real races ended, and it pitted Spirit’s mechanics pushing Seraph in Lane 1 up against “SigEx”, a combination of SigEp and Apex pushers pushing Apex’s Solaris in Lane 2. Although Seraph closed the gap a bit in the Rollout up to Hill 3, SigEx dominated the heat thanks to a pushing advantage that included a 17.5 second Hill 1, leaving them in front from start to finish.
          • SigEx Roster: SigEx featured pushers James Crews, Chris Chang, Peter Koltas, Alex Bellomo, and Ibnul Jahan
          • SigEx: 2:38.71
          • Spirit Mechanics: 2:51.35
        • Exhibition Heat 3 – Due to the bad weather in the Spring, SigEp was only able to qualify one of their buggies. This left some of their pushers with nothing to push, so Sweepstakes granted an exemption and allowed “SigEp B” to roll as an Exhibition Heat with Hydra. The “SigEp” B team was a mix of men’s and women’s pushers that would have pushed Hydra had they been able to get the necessary rolls in. They were placed in Lane 2, and were paired with the Apex 10th Anniversary team pushing Solaris in Lane 1. This ended up being a very exciting Exhibition Heat, and arguably the most exciting heat of the entire day, as SigEp had a very narrow lead going into the freeroll. Hydra’s rookie driver made a dramatic crossover that put her just in front of Solaris, leading to Solaris lightly tapping the brakes. Hydra gained a bit through the Freeroll, but Solaris closed the gap again on the Rollout. That was enough for Apex to pass on Hill 4, but the neck-and-neck battle on Hill 5 went SigEp’s way, with SigEp crossing the finish line 1 second in front.
          • Apex 10 Roster: Apex’s pushers included Adam McCue, Ari Mapua, Trevor Decker, and Rohan Mehta.
          • SigEp: 2:54.32
          • Apex 10: 2:55.62
        • Exhibition Heat 4 – The final Exhibition Heat on Friday was an extra special one. 2022 marked the 50th Anniversary of the founding of CIA, so to commemorate the occasion, rather than fielding a push team of 5, CIA fielded a push team of, well…50. Pushers lined up all along the front and back hills to get a shove in on CIA’s new buggy, Roadrunner. It worked pretty well on the front hills, though it fell apart on bit on the backhills. Still, the pushers had a lot of fun. Maybe not surprisingly, the 50 pusher team finished well ahead of their competition in the heat, the Spirit Drivers, who each took 1 full hill to push one of their own in Inviscid.
          • Spirit Drivers Roster: Lara Witwick, Melina Castillo, Cynthia Xu, Gloria Moon, Chloe Lenker
          • CIA 50 Roster: Everybody
          • CIA 50: 2:57.30
          • Spirit Drivers: 3:36.34
        • Cancelled Heats – While the Friday Exhibitions were able to take place, Saturday’s cancellation meant that we missed out on some others. The CIT and MCS faculty were scheduled to renew their Buggy rivalry, with the CMU Housefellows adding a third faculty team to the competition, but with no Saturday races the Faculty “division” would have to wait another year. The rain also led to the cancellation of the Exhibitions scheduled to occur after the Finals, which included runs by Spirit, SigNu, SAE, Fringe, SigEp, and 2 PiKA alumni teams, plus the vaunted BAA vs. Sweepstakes rivalry. There was also a special event scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first win by PhiKap’s Streak, with Streak being pushed up Hill 5. But due to the rain cancellation, that vintage push would need to wait a few more years.