Happy October, James here! With the start of spooky season, Dan is off in the woods, so I will be guest writing (ghost writing? 👻) this weekend’s rolls report. We got a few more spectators this weekend than normal, with visiting families around the course. CMU has finally moved Family Weekend to not conflict with Fall Break. On that note, there are not rolls scheduled the next 2 weekends (10/11 – 10/19) with the next possible rolls on 10/25 due to Fall Break.
| Org | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Apex | Solaris, Helios | Solaris, Helios |
| CIA | Goldfinch, Kingfisher, Roadrunner | Kingfisher, Emperor |
| Fringe | Bermuda, Baltic, Blackbird | Blackbird, Bermuda |
| Robobuggy | NAND, Short Circuit | — |
| SDC | Paranoia, Lust | Paranoia, Lust |
| Spirit | Inviscid, Seraph, Zuke | Seraph, Inviscid, Zuke |
Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) | Sunday Gallery (upload)
General Observations
- Roadkill seems to be the chores challenge of the semester. According to Sweepstakes, we have officially averaged more than 1 dead squirrel/chipmunk per day of rolls this semester. Hopefully this just means fewer squirrels that can then run in front of buggies during practice.
- Someone supposedly set off a fire alarm in Posner Hall, prompting a fire engine to arrive at the bottom of Hill 1. Seemingly, there was no real cause for concern, as the firefighters stayed around the course, getting the chance to catch and push some buggies!
- With good weather, a tight set of teams, and smooth operations, we’ve gotten a whole bunch of rolls in this semester! Sweepstakes recently passed some changes to how carryover numbers work in order to help incentivize more teams to get out in the fall, rather than fighting the unpredictable weather of the spring semester. Even with a higher carryover limit, we already have 3 drivers at max carryover for the fall semester, with more than 22 rolls so far.
Team Observations
- Apex — Apex continued to have a smooth few days of rolls. Notably, we spotted Solaris on Saturday with one of the RTK kits strapped on. I believe we had only previously seen CIA using these, so it’s exciting to see more teams trying them out!
- CIA — CIA had another quiet, but efficient week. The most notable thing about their appearance this weekend was that they only had 2 buggies out on Sunday, rather than the 3-4 that we’ve seen every other day of rolls. Given they have the highest combined roll count of all the teams so far (over 100!), they can probably afford a bit of a break.
- Fringe — No incidents for Fringe this week, though onlookers may have been confused by their bagging strategy this week. For one roll, they sent a bagged buggy before an unbagged buggy. We’re told this was to let a parent see their kid driving from the follow car. We also saw Bermuda bagged this week, with their 3rd Bermuda driver starting to get more rolls in.
- Robobuggy — Robobuggy was out on Saturday this weekend, continuing to bring out their VR headset. We did catch them taking a different line by jogging around the right side of the monument, though they settled into the standard line in the bike lane by the end of the day.
- SDC — We saw both Paranoia and Lust out again this weekend. SDC is certainly picking up speed, and like last weekend, is practicing floating their buggies. Unfortunately, early into Sunday’s practice, one of Paranoia’s wheels came off, causing them to spin in the chute. Their driver is alright, although we don’t have a root cause for what caused the wheel to pop off. They continued rolling with Lust for the remainder of Sunday.
- Spirit — Spirit looked good this weekend, making some friends with the firefighters, who got to watch some Hill 1s, before helping them catch on Saturday. On Sunday, they only had one incident caused by some deer crossing the road at the chute. No injuries, just an inconvenience. Hopefully, we can buck this trend of having wildlife on the course.
As always, if you would like to help contribute notes or photos/video for these rolls reports, you can sign up to help here or reach out to Dan.
If you have additional notes or corrections, feel free to reach out to myself (@jamestwong on Discord / jameswong@cmubuggy.org) or Dan (@.dbec on Discord / danbecerra@cmubuggy.org).
Thanks to Jazz and Guillermo for their contributions this week!