Homecoming Weekend has come and gone! It was great to see some of you back on campus, and always great to meet more students who came out to chat and grab a donut (sorry we didn’t have enough for everyone, that won’t be a problem at Raceday!). Thanks especially to our volunteers!! There were some changes to Mini-Raceday this year which made it more exciting, although the weather was quite uncooperative, shortening our time to roll significantly.

We had heats this year!

• This Mini-Raceday was much different than past fall competitions. It evolved from impromptu timing of a few rolls for each org, to an event including 2 buggy heats, livestreamed for the buggy community! You could feel the energy at the start line. Thanks to all the alumni and student volunteers who helped us with timing, broadcasting, commentating, and any other tasks! View the livestream here. It was a bit of an experiment, but by all accounts was enjoyed so we hope to see it again next year (hopefully with better weather).
  

Teams were going for it this year

• You’ll note the list of racing buggies above is relatively light, the weather delays plus the heat format led to fewer rolls. There was overnight rain, and Sweepstakes did its best to dry the chute, including with an army of paper-towel-wielding students and follow cars parked and revving their engines. All told we did not start until about 8AM. Sweepstakes and the teams decided to not hold rolls on Sunday with another rainy forecast looming.

Get this car down to drive the course dry!

• Setting up for rolls was not without its challenges as usual. A parked car mysteriously appeared after the roads were closed- and Sweepstakes knew exactly how to deal with them so they didn’t bail during rolls.

Blame Guillermo for that pun

• The full results can be found here. SigEp, CIA, and Fringe posted the fastest times in each division, congratulations! Several teams did not enter teams for some divisions, whether due to road conditions or other reasons. The roads were not completely dry, and that did lead to lines in the chute that were less clean than usual and some incidents that I’ll describe below. Videos of starts and finishes can be seen on our Youtube channel!

• Apex. Helios was entered in 3 heats, the first timing heat, an All-Gender heat, and a Men’s heat (but scratched for the Men’s heat). Helios continues to roll well in its second year.

Helios heat 1 of 2!

• CIA. CIA had 4 buggies roll, the most entered on Mini-Raceday this year. In their first heat for Men’s B, Emperor was late to the line (a few seconds after the heat started), but continued, and then was given the stop flag after Lust spun ahead of them. Their Men’s A team pushed Starling and finished second on the day. Goldfinch rolled for Women’s A with the top Women’s time, and Kingfisher rolled for Women’s B with the second-fastest Women’s time.

Your winning Women’s buggy

• DG. Delta Gamma ran the first heat of the day, and as usual Insite was clean through the course, as consistently as they were at the end of last season. All eyes are on their next build which we continue to hear will debut this school year!

Insite finishing the first heat solo

• Fringe. Blackbird and Baltic were rolling smoothly and only entered All Gender teams. They achieved the two fastest All Gender times of the day! The B team and Blackbird just edged out the A team by 3 seconds.

Blackbird Hill 2

• PiKA. Raptor with veteran driver Lara put up a solid time. Their start was a little shaky as the Hill 1 pusher popped both back wheels up on the initial push (watch the start/finish video on our Youtube channel to see it). That is one technique that he has plenty of time to fix before Carnival.

Raptor in transition

• SDC. SDC raced Lust once, had a spin in the chute, and then did not roll anymore that day. Paranoia scratched for their scheduled heat, and we saw Vice in the staging area, but they did not roll.

Lust in SDC’s only roll of the day

• SigEp. Barracuda came to Mini-Raceday with its usually quick rolls and solid line, and the Sig Ep pushers also showed up to post the fastest time of the day and win Mini-Raceday for the Men’s side!

Hill 3 push-off

• Spirit. Seraph and Inviscid were busy Saturday. Seraph was rolling for the timing heat and the Men’s heats, Inviscid for Women’s and All Gender. Inviscid had a tougher go of it, as they first clipped the bales and paused in the chute, before being cleared to keep rolling. Later on, the buggy was several minutes late to the line, started up Hill 1, and then was waived off from continuing down the course.

Seraph at the 4/5 handoff