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; 2023

It’s September, and you know what that means…it’s time for another 100+ Years of Buggy History article. This year, we look back on 2023. We’re finally back on the tracks after COVID knocked us off, with a full year of Rolls with decent weather and 2 full days of racing! And not only are we back on the tracks, but we’re expanding them, with the first new competitive division since 1979! Of course, you can’t have the good without the bad, and Raceday 2023 ended up being particularly controversial, as one organization got into trouble with the school, one team saw their victory erased, and one team’s winning streak would come to an end…a month before Raceday.

Raceday: Prelims on Friday, April 14 at 7:30am; Finals on Saturday, April 15 at 8:00am

Sweepstakes Committee: James Wong (Chair); Isabel Vala (Ass. Chair); Ale Bonacini (Safety); Elena Harllee (Design); Elizabeth Zapanta (Comms & Marketing)

Men’s Results: (1) PiKA A – Banshee (2:09.39); (2) Spirit A – Seraph (2:11.49); (3) Apex A – Firefly (2:13.63); (4) Spirit B – Mapambazuko (2:16.59); (5) Fringe B – Barbie (2:17.95); (6) CIA C – Emperor (2:18.63)

Women’s Results: (1) Spirit A – Seraph (2:35.28); (2) CIA A – Equinox (2:36.43); (3) Fringe A – Baltic (2:40.15); (4) PiKA A – Banshee (2:43.41); (5) SigNu A – Jaeger (2:46.89); (6) Apex A – Firefly (2:46.92)

All Gender Results: (1) Apex A – Firefly (2:45.58 – COURSE RECORD); (2) PiKA A – Raptor (2:49.85); (3) CIA A – Equinox (2:56.62)

Design Comp: (1) CIA – Roadrunner; (2) Fringe – Brimstone; (3) Apex – Scorch

Other Awards: (People’s Choice) Fringe – Brimstone; (Anne Witchner Chairman’s Choice) Robobuggy, W3VC/Radio Club (tie); (Tom Wood Spirit of Buggy) Fringe; (T-Shirt) Robobuggy; (Chairperson of the Year) Mia Krishnamurthy (SigEp)

Weather: Sunny, 58-80 Degrees on Friday; Mostly Cloudy, 60-75 Degrees on Saturday

Buggy Book: 2023 Buggy Book Link

Raceday Video Playlist: 2023 Race Playlist

Photo Gallery: 2022-2023 Photos

Prediction Score: 16/40 Men’s, 19/40 Women’s, N/A All Gender (Compubookie); 12/55 Men’s, 29/55 Women’s, 16/34 All Gender (Connor Hayes)

• Buggy Expands to Three Divisions. Early in the Fall semester, some of the teams began to express concerns about the current setup of Men’s and Women’s divisions. Some pushers didn’t feel comfortable racing in one of the two existing divisions. So after much consideration and weighing a few different options, Sweepstakes and the Chairmen decided to make it official and launch a new division for the first time since the Women’s division was added in 1979. The new All Gender division “was designed to help bring more students to the sport of buggy, who might have been excluded otherwise.” The new rules, adopted for 2023, allowed each team to enter a total of 1 All Gender team, with pushing open to anyone – not only were push teams not restricted by gender, but Greek organizations were not limited to members of their own organization. Rosters were determined based on pusher preference, where pushers were asked to rank their preferred division(s). Seeding was based on the average of each organization’s Men’s and Women’s times. And since this was a new division with a maximum of 1 team per organization, there were no Prelims – each of the teams would race in a Finals heat on Saturday, with the Top 3 teams receiving trophies. 5 organizations ended up entering teams, and in Heat 3, Apex A put down a 2:45.92 to earn the first ever All Gender title (which was also Apex’s first ever title). Meanwhile, the first Monarch of the Hill award (the Hill 1 All Gender equivalent of King/Queen) would go to PiKA A’s Thomas Cornelius.

• Driver Safety Rules. One of the big initiatives for Sweepstakes in 2023, especially coming out of the COVID era, was to improve driver safety. A quick look at the rulebook showed a few gaps in the safety tests that were applied to buggies and drivers when qualifying to roll. In addition to updating the capes language to align with the modern test, Sweepstakes made updates to add the Snake, Sit, and Pull tests as part of Capes. All of these tests had been conducted for years, but they had never been formally codified in the rules.  The Pull test was designed to ensure that the driver’s harness and attachment points were secure, to prevent the driver from sliding forward in the event of a crash. The Sit Test ensured the structural integrity of the buggy’s shell, by requiring an individual to sit on the buggy shell and inspect for any deviations. The Snake test ensured that each driver could adequately steer the buggy, by requiring the driver to follow a “snake” path after completing their brake test. Of course, driver safety wasn’t just about the rulebook changes…

• S-D-C, A Tale in Three Acts: Act 1 – S(afety). SDC had a rocky start to the year. They were able to recruit 3 new drivers to pair with their one veteran, but the team found themselves frequently on the incident report list during the Fall and early Spring rolls.  It started on the first weekend of rolls, when a new driver in Avarice failed to make the Chute turn and hit one of the bridge barricades before stopping. They would see a few more wheel issues and spins in the Fall, but things took a turn for the worse at the start of the Spring.  On their first roll of the semester on February 11, a new driver in Havoc initially missed the Chute turn, then overcorrected and crashed head-on into an unhaybaled section of curb, short of the Chute. Though the buggy was bagged, the driver sustained a serious arm injury and had to be taken for medical treatment, and a portion of Havoc was destroyed beyond repair, forcing the buggy into retirement (though the buggy would later be used to conduct some harness testing under a Buggy Enhancement Grant). The following weekend, a new driver in Vanity missed the Chute turn on her first roll, narrowly missing one of the bridge barricades and luckily being stopped just before the buggy reached a parked car on the other side of the barricades. The plethora of incidents, along with an anonymous report from another team expressing concern over driver safety, led Sweepstakes to open an investigation into SDC’s safety practices, with SDC’s attendance at rolls prohibited while the investigation was underway (SDC appealed the prohibition, but the appeal was denied).

• S-D-C, A Tale in Three Acts: Act 2 – D(ecision).  Sweepstakes’ investigation into the SDC safety issues concluded on March 13. The investigation had two core findings: (1) that SDC’s driver training program had been insufficient, and (2) that SDC’s drivers had improperly “cheated” when passing the field of vision test during Capes. On the latter finding, Sweepstakes had interviewed multiple current and former SDC drivers, who reported that following the brake test, the team had instructed them to pull themselves forward in the buggy if the braking action had slid them backwards. Sweepstakes ultimately found that this shifting forward was being done improperly and putting drivers in a non-natural driving position, giving them a wider field of vision that would successfully allow them pass the vision test, when their natural driving position would not have given the drivers an adequate field of vision. As a result of the investigation, Sweepstakes initially recommended that SDC be disqualified as an organization for Raceday 2023, and be placed on probation for Raceday 2024. However, SLICE overruled Sweepstakes’ recommendation, and on March 20, instead assessed the following penalty against SDC as a result of the two findings: (1) SDC would be required to re-cape all drivers and buggies (including field of vision tests); (2) SDC would be restricted to two buggies – Inferno and Avarice (and their approved drivers) – for Raceday 2023; (3) Vanity and its driver would only be permitted to drive at Rolls, but not Raceday; and (4) SDC would not be allowed to heat or treat their wheels on their buggies for Raceday (provided that, pending a review, this penalty may be reversed for the SDC A team/veteran driver).

• S-D-C, A Tale in Three Acts: Act 3 – C(onduct, Unsportsmanlike). Unfortunately, the SDC story doesn’t end there. Sweepstakes was dealing with pushback from other organizations, who felt that the decision by SLICE did not go far enough, and who threatened to boycott Raceday out of fear for the safety of their own drivers in racing against SDC. Meanwhile, SDC was, unsurprisingly, upset about the decision. They protested both the findings of the investigation, as well as the punishment levied on them. Both current students of SDC, as well as SDC alumni, repeatedly attempted to contact Sweepstakes in order to either reverse the decision, receive additional guidance, or set up their return to racing. From Sweepstakes’ perspective, this was too much. On March 27, Sweepstakes ultimately took the additional step and disqualified SDC from racing on Raceday 2023, officially ending SDC’s record-breaking 10 year winning streak in the Men’s races. Sweepstakes determined that following the decision made on March 20, SDC had engaged in “unsportsmanlike conduct”, specifically: (1) SDC had failed to take ownership of their actions and continued to push back on the initial penalty assessed, (2) SDC had failed to understand the impact that their actions had had on the Buggy community, (3) SDC’s leadership had continued to harass the Sweepstakes Committee, and (4) SDC alumni had attempted to interfere with Sweepstakes’ decisionmaking process and denigrate both current and former Sweepstakes Committee members. The original decision and appeals would eventually lead to an Administrative Review. Following SDC’s successful capes with Inferno on March 30, the Administrative Review Committee unanimously found that SDC had met all safety requirements for reinstatement, and that there was no evidence to substantiate the claim that SDC drivers were only able to pass the field of vision test by changing their position in the buggy. The committee therefore recommended that SDC be permitted to return to the course. However, this review only affected the initial safety claims and penalties; it did not overturn the Unsportsmanlike Conduct determination. As a result, Sweepstakes allowed SDC to return to Rolls and race in an Exhibition on Raceday, but the highly controversial disqualification remained in effect and led to a major overhaul within SDC.

• Come on Eileen Barbie, Let’s Go Party. If only to make matters worse, SDC wasn’t the only major organizational issue that Sweepstakes had to deal with for Raceday 2023. But while SDC’s situation was entirely about what happened on the course, SAE’s drama was entirely about what happened off the course. On March 3, an anonymous report of hazing at SAE was reported to the CMU Ethics Reporting hotline, alleging that multiple new members had become physically ill. CMU police investigated in order to corroborate the call, and found open condiments (including hot sauce), partially eaten fruits and other foods. SAE was referred to the University Disciplinary Committee, to determine if SAE had violated the University policies on (1) hazing and (2) alcohol and drugs (alcohol in common spaces). That hearing was scheduled for June 22, but until then, SAE was prohibited from participating in any campus activities, including Buggy. But while the decision may have precluded the organization from competing, it didn’t stop the driver, or buggy, from being able to roll. So SAE lent Eileen, along with their driver Carleigh (neither of whom was a member of SAE), over to Fringe. The buggy/driver combo would ultimately roll as Fringe’s Men’s B team and Women’s C team. But of course, there was one condition – Fringe couldn’t roll a buggy that didn’t start with a “B”. So the buggy received a new paint job – pink – and a new name: Barbie (Note from the future: The name change was made four months before the movie Barbie took the world by storm).  Ironically, Fringe Men’s B would go on to earn a trophy with a 5th place finish in a 2:17.95, which would have been the best performance for SAE since 1992, had SAE been allowed to participate.

• A Comeback For The Ages. Heading into the last heat of the Women’s Finals, Spirit had the last chance to knock CIA off their perch, but it was a tall order. CIA’s 2:36.43 meant that not only would Spirit A have to shave 6.5 seconds off of their Prelims time of 2:42.92, but they would also have to put up their fastest Women’s time since 2009. That didn’t stop Spirit from giving it their all though, and their heat went perfectly. While the front hills and start of the Freeroll were on par with their Prelim time, Spirit’s Seraph managed to find some extra gas in the Freeroll, hitting the Chute nearly 2 MPH faster than on Day 1, and a perfect Chute turn allowed for a much better rollout. By the time they hit Hill 3, Seraph had already found 4 seconds. From there, the Backhills pushers found another gear, and they crossed the Finish Line in 2:35.28, dropping 7.5 seconds from their Prelims time and pulling off one of the biggest comebacks, and one of the most shocking upsets, in Buggy history.

• The Narrowest of Margins. After the disappointment of the Women’s heats, CIA still had something to look forward to – they had a 1.5 second edge in the Men’s races after Prelims, in their quest for their first Men’s victory since 1981. And as the final Men’s Finals Heat, Heat 5, began, CIA was feeling good about their chances. PiKA A, in Finals Heat 4, essentially matched their time on Day 1, which meant that all CIA A and Kingfisher would need to do was put up the same time as Friday and they would be champions. And as Kingfisher crossed the Finish Line 2 minutes and 7 seconds after the race began, the CIA members and alumni erupted in ecstasy. But CIA’s rough day wouldn’t end with the Women’s races. Immediately following the heat, the judges received a protest from Spirit, claiming that Kingfisher came out of its Lane on Hill 2. Sure enough, during Tape Review, the video confirmed that Kingfisher did, in fact, have one wheel that briefly crossed the inside line of Lane 1. While this did not interfere with Spirit B (the other buggy in the heat), and had a negligible effect on CIA A’s actual race or time, the Sweepstakes rules were unambiguous that if a team commits a lane violation and another team in the same heat files a protest, the team committing the lane violation is automatically disqualified. CIA was informed at Chairmen’s and word quickly spread through the Buggy community. The result was that PiKA would earn their first victory since their 7-year winning streak snapped in 2009, and would also lead to some future changes to the Lane Violation rules (but more on that next year…)

• SigNuing Like It’s 2009. It’s always exciting when a new team that hasn’t built in a while manages to come out with a new buggy. It’s even more exciting when that team hadn’t debuted a new buggy since some of its members were still in diapers. So it was to great fanfare that SigNu introduced their new buggy, Jaeger, to the course, the organization’s first new build since Bungarus Krait debuted in 2009. And they wasted no time at all in doing so, going against the grain and sending Jaeger out in the Fall. The buggy caped on October 5 and then immediately made its debut on October 8, just the 3rd weekend of Rolls for the year. Those fall rolls would help the team get two different drivers qualified in Jaeger. But there was one big surprise to the casual observer – the buggy didn’t look much like a SigNu buggy. While the mold may have used SigNu’s traditional model, SigNu decided to make the new buggy a standard trike, their first standard trike since Pope Jackson in 1987. But the new build wasn’t the only throwback to 2009. SigNu also managed to assemble a Women’s push team for the first time since 2009 as well. The Women’s team didn’t come without some confusion though, as SigNu’s original Women’s team dropped out the day after rosters were submitted. However, SigNu was able to find replacements and got Sweepstakes’ approval to switch the rosters. Of course, even that didn’t come without a little bit of drama. Given the fast buggy and unknown push team, other teams were uncomfortable going against SigNu in their heats. While SigNu was initially paired against Fringe B in Women’s Prelims Heat 6, there were enough concerns about the timing that SigNu was moved to its own heat at the beginning of the day. Ultimately, the solid new push team, combined with the fast, sleek Jaeger, turned out to be pretty good, securing a 5th place trophy for the org.

• New Buggies for 2023. SigNu may have been the most anticipated build, but they weren’t the only team to send something new to the course. Both Fringe and Apex would send out new buggies in 2023. And coincidentally, it seemed like they coordinated on their paint jobs, as they used the same color palette of black, yellow, and orange, in almost an inverse design. Fringe decided to reach into the buggy archives and pull out a winning name for their buggy, Brimstone. Rumor has it that the name Brimstone, which in addition to fitting Fringe’s “B” theme also fits Apex’s fire theme, was actually a finalist for Apex’s name as well, before they chose the name Scorch for their new forward trike. And while that was it for the human-driven builds for 2023, there was one more new entrant, as Robobuggy produced their first buggy of the post-COVID era, Short Circuit. Short Circuit appeared to feature a more sophisticated hardware system, along with its well-designed blue shell, and quickly became Robobuggy’s top performer.

• Autonomous Success. With their new buggy in hand, Robobuggy entered Raceday 2023 looking to set records. They had a bit of an inauspicious start on Friday though. When the gun went off, the buggy had a mind of its own and decided to take a sharp right turn, immediately coming into contact with the curb. Robobuggy’s Hill 1 pusher Delaynie McMillan corrected it and got it going in the right direction, but the buggy would need some remote control help. On Saturday, things went much better. Robobuggy was able to stay autonomous the entire way around the course, and didn’t make contact with a single obstacle. While the clean roll was impressive enough, Robobuggy took it one step further, crossing the Finish Line in a 3:09.70. That time was good enough for an autonomous course record. And while the buggy itself was autonomous, it did have a “driver” – a teddy bear named Ellie that was strapped to the pushbar for the rolls.

• Design Competition Becomes Mandatory. With the 2022 change to allow for more buggies to qualify for Design Awards, it was a little disappointing to see so few teams compete in Design Competition in 2022. So in an attempt to improve participation in Design Competition, Sweepstakes enacted a rule that each team racing on Raceday would be required to enter at least one buggy in the Design Competition. Initially Sweepstakes sought to impose this rule unilaterally for 2023, but a vote of the Chairmen in March confirmed the rule on a permanent basis, adding the requirement to the rulebook. While different teams may have put different levels of effort into their Design Comp presentations, this became the first year since the 1950s in which every team had a Design Competition entry.

• Other Rule Changes. The new All Gender division, safety updates and Design Comp changes weren’t the only focus of Rulebook updates for Raceday 2023. Sweepstakes also sought to make a few other changes to help reduce some barriers to entry for Buggy in an attempt to solicit better participation and more competition. For teams with more than 1 buggy, they were no longer required to use their own buggies to complete a pass test; while it was still encouraged, teams could now pass another organization’s buggy to complete their pass test. Sweepstakes also made a 2023-specific rule for Greek organizations: Greek organizations would be permitted to give one pusher slot on each of their teams to a non-member of the organization (so only 80% of a push team had to be made up of members of the org). This was a trial run for 2023, to see if Greek organizations would benefit from the flexibility and negate some of the advantages that the independent organizations have with roster construction. Other clean-ups included clarifications around robotic buggies and temporary updates related to the construction of the Highmark Center. And though we don’t know if PiKA took advantage of this rule change, it certainly didn’t hurt as they found themselves at the top of the podium for the first time since 2008.

• BAA Build Book Released. Speaking of lowering barriers to entry, one of the stated missions of the Buggy Alumni Association is to “support and improve undergraduate participation.” One of the ways that the BAA has sought to do that, for a long time, is to help make it easier for teams to build a buggy. And after several years of developing and writing, in September 2022 the BAA finally made the biggest contribution to lowering that barrier yet – they published a Build Book! The book, written by BAA President Connor Hayes and BAA Vice President Diya Nuxoll, with contributions from Ethan Gladding, Sydney Baker, Ben Matzke, Bethany Bauer, Tishya Girdhar, Rachael Schmitt, and Linna Griffin, includes step-by-step instructions for how to build a buggy from scratch. The buggy included in the book was not necessarily designed to be a course record-setting buggy, but it was designed to be a sturdy, long-lasting, low-maintenance buggy that teams can then iterate off of. Not only does the book include instructions for how to build (including the shell, steering, braking, and safety systems); it also includes the thought process behind the decision points in the book and other common decisions (such as why a reverse trike was chosen, and why a team might want to try a standard trike instead). Lastly, the book also includes a sample budget for the build, as well as direct links to purchase the tools and supplies necessary to complete the build. It was a labor of love and a lot of hard work, but the book would pay off – DG would ultimately use the book as a guide for their first ever build, Banta (more on that in a couple of years).

• The Sweepstakes Advisor is [moving on to another role at the University]. Long live the Sweepstakes Advisor! After 15 years as Sweepstakes Advisor, Kaycee Palko announced that Raceday 2022 would be her last year overseeing Sweepstakes, and that the University would be searching for someone new to take over that role in 2023. In honor of her 15 years of service to the sport, the Buggy Alumni Association honored Kaycee with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the Buggy Bash at Spring Carnival. She will be sorely missed by the Buggy community [though once Buggy is in your blood, it’s there forever, and we’ve seen you out at Raceday since then Kaycee!]. Meanwhile, Director of Student Involvement and Traditions Elizabeth Koch took over as the interim advisor for Raceday 2023. Then, in the Spring semester, CMU brought in Stacie Gardner to take over the role of Sweepstakes Advisor full time. Raceday 2023 was an all-hands-on-deck affair, with Stacie getting up to speed in the transition. Of course, there was only one way to truly transition from one faculty advisor to another: A Hill 5 Grudge Match! Kaycee and Stacie stepped in last minute to replace mascot no-shows and injuries and battled it out on Hill 5, with Kaycee pushing PiKA’s Cleona and Stacie pushing Spirit’s Kingpin. It was an incredibly tight battle, but Kaycee was able to use her vast Buggy experience to win by a nose.

• Faculty Division Expansion. It may not be an official division, but the MCS vs. CIT grudge match that began in 2019 got an expansion for 2023. A total of 5 different faculty teams threw their hats in the ring for the title of Raceday 2023 Faculty Champion. In addition to the MCS and CIT teams that renewed their rivalry in Exhibition Heat 3 on Friday, the Housing & Residential Education (ResEd), Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS), and Athletics departments all fielded teams. At the end of the day, it was CIT who reigned supreme, with a time of 2:44.67, over 10 seconds ahead of the Athletics department in 2nd. For more details on the individual heats, see The Exhibition Roundup below.

• Hot Weather, Cool Drivers. Throughout most of the year, if you have to worry about the temperature inside a buggy, it becomes a question of how many layers you can tuck inside to keep a driver warm. Raceday 2023, however, brought with it unseasonably warm weather. In fact, it was so warm that there was some concern about driver safety when staying in their buggies too long. So Sweepstakes made the decision that teams would be required to remove the hatches from their buggies in between heats, and allowed teams to remove them immediately after Drops. This would help dissipate any heat getting trapped inside the buggy, and give the drivers a chance to feel the breeze.

• Buggy vs. Reddit. You don’t expect to see Buggy show up on Reddit all that often, and when you do, it’s usually related to a Raceday heat. But for the first rolls of the Spring on February 11, Buggy found itself the center of some r/cmu drama. Although the post is now deleted, it seems that someone was complaining about entitled CMU students, saying that they were yelled at by a barricader when trying to get onto Schenley Drive. Buggy folks came out in force on the reddit page though, and clearly the user decided they were in the wrong.

• Mini-Raceday Roundup. Mini-Raceday took place on November 5-6, and there’s a whole Mini-Raceday recap available here, so I won’t re-hash it all in this article. But as an interesting preview for Raceday 2023, the Mini-Raceday results (PiKA winning Men’s, Spirit winning Women’s, Apex winning All Gender) was a harbinger of things to come. Even though the Raceday results were partly due to the SDC and CIA DQs, it’s maybe a sign that we should take Mini-Raceday results seriously when projecting Raceday results.

• Trophy Troubles. There was a tie for the Anne Witchner Chairman’s Choice award in 2023, with both W3VC/Radio Club and Robobuggy being named the honorees. That decision had some downstream effects though. A mixup at the trophy maker meant that the two teams weren’t able to receive their trophies at Awards Ceremony. They would have to wait for a special delivery later in the year.

• Truck Weekend, Live?. The BAA tried something new in 2023 and attempted to live stream Truck Weekend, including providing drone footage! Unfortunately, the internet service wasn’t great at the course (what else is new?), and it failed. But hey, maybe one day!

• The Documentary That Wasn’t. Things were looking up for Buggy having a wider reach for the 2022-2023 season. A documentarian had been in touch with Spirit since the prior school year, and was planning on following them around to make a documentary about Spirit’s involvement in Buggy, culminating with Raceday 2023. Rumors were that this could even include coverage of a new build. Given how 2023 turned out, with Spirit’s comeback victory in the Women’s races and earning their best Men’s finish since 2004, this would have made for an incredible story. Unfortunately, schedules didn’t end up aligning, and the planned documentary fell apart. Now all you have to tell the tale of Raceday 2023 is this measly article.

• Other Notable Women’s Heats.
  • Women’s Prelims Generally. Aside from the CIA A bottlecap incident noted above, Women’s Prelims were a remarkably drama-free affair. No one had to worry about passes, there were no spins, and everyone made it around the course. The only 2 DQs were SigEp B’s Lane Violation in Heat 8 (noted above), and a Fringe D roster violation. The only real drama in any of the heats came from a number of teams on Hill 3; several pushers didn’t seem to know where to stand and got burned by their buggies to varying degrees.
  • Women’s Prelims Heat 5 – Spirit B’s Zuke had a bit of a skid in the Chute. While the buggy was fine and made it through the Chute cleanly, it did lose some speed in the process. More interestingly though, the skid seemed to do some damage to its back left wheel, or wheel cover. The wheel was noticeably wobbling up the entire backhills, though it made it to the Finish Line and passed drops without issue.
  • Women’s Finals Heat 1 – Women’s Prelims may have been uneventful, but the Finals got off to a rough start. SigNu A’s Jaeger, coming out of Lane 1 in Women’s Finals Heat 1, got the jump on Spirit B’s Zuke in Lane 2 early in the race. But SigNu’s Hill 2 pusher missed the shove, and Zuke began to gain on Jaeger as they reached the Chute. Jaeger made it through cleanly, but Zuke, trailing closely behind, tried to take the turn a little too tightly and spun, ending up nose-first in the inner bales.
  • Women’s Finals Heat 2 – Things didn’t get much better in Heat 2. This time, SigEp A’s Barracuda in Lane 2 won the battle up the front hills over CIA B’s Roadrunner, and Barracuda continued to widen their lead as the race progressed. However, when Barracuda turned into the Chute, something went wrong. The buggy lost control and spun, tapping the inner bales and coming to a rest on the inside of the Chute. Roadrunner, which at that point was a few seconds behind, took a tight inside line into the Chute. Thankfully, Barracuda had made it through most of the Chute before coming to a stop, giving Roadrunner’s driver plenty of time to steer around the spun-out buggy. Unfortunately for SigEp, the mechanical issue ended up being severe that they would be forced to withdraw from the Men’s Finals as well.
• Other Notable Men’s Heats.
  • Men’s Prelims Heat 3 – This heat between SigEp A’s Barracuda and CIA C’s Emperor isn’t notable for anything that happened on the course beyond both teams putting up a Finals time. Instead, it’s notable for what happened when the Heat video landed on YouTube. The YouTube algorithm suddenly decided (rightfully so, in my opinion) that more people should know about Buggy. So it sent this heat out to the masses. Until April 2026, this heat was the most seen heat in Buggy history, with over 1.5 million views on YouTube. Congrats to SigEp and CIA for the fame!
  • Men’s Prelims Heat 5 – Lane violations were the DQ du jour for Raceday 2023 but not all of them were controversial. SigEp B’s Kraken was in Lane 1 in Heat 5, going up against Apex D’s Phoenix. And while the buggies had a large separation on the front hills, Kraken’s driver got a little careless with the lane lines going into the Freeroll. Trying to take a more direct line to the curb, Kraken cut the corner a bit too early and put the entire buggy in Lane 2 at the shove, resulting in another Lane Violation DQ.
  • Men’s Prelims Heat 6 – PiKA B’s Raptor going up against CIA D’s Equinox in Heat 6 wasn’t necessarily supposed to be exciting. But something seemed to be amiss with Raptor, which was rolling quite slow down the Freeroll and didn’t get much of a rollout on to Hill 3. Equinox, however, had a smooth Freeroll and maintained a lot of its momentum. This allowed CIA to nearly pull even with PiKA B on Hill 3. PiKA B would pull away on Hill 4, but not before making things interesting.
  • Men’s Prelims Heat 7 – Spirit C’s Kingpin had a bit of a tough time in Lane 2 going up against Fringe A’s Brimstone in Lane 1 of Heat 7. Spirit’s Hill 1 pusher initially began pushing after “3-2-1” in the countdown, jumping the gun a bit early. They managed to get the buggy back behind the line before “Go”, but the buggy may have actually been rolling slightly backwards at the start of the race. Meanwhile, once the race actually began, Fringe got out in front, with Spirit gaining quickly in the Freeroll. By the time they reached the Stop Sign, Spirit had pulled about even with Fringe, but couldn’t actually get past the buggy to its inside, putting Spirit in an awkward position as they headed for the Transition Flag. Rather than risk contact, or being squeezed between Brimstone and the curb, the driver of Kingpin hit the brakes, and was granted a Reroll, taking place on Saturday morning.
  • Men’s Prelims Heat 11 – CIA A’s Kingfisher may have been a favorite to win, but most people wouldn’t have expected that Fringe B’s Barbie would match them step for step on Hill 1. CIA took a very slight lead on Hill 2, but the two buggies were shoved into the Freeroll almost simultaneously. Kingfisher, with the narrow edge, maintained (and widened) that lead a bit through the Freeroll, but the tight race may have helped propel both teams into the Finals.
  • Men’s Finals Heat 1 – For the second day in a row, Fringe B’s Barbie was the surprise source of a very tight heat, this time going up against Apex A’s Firefly in Finals Heat 1. But unlike on Friday, this time Fringe B was able to enter the Freeroll narrowly in front. The two buggies seemed to be going the same speed for the early part of the Freeroll but Apex slowly began to inch closer as they got closer to the Stop Sign. At the Stop Sign, it became apparent that the Chute might be difficult with the closing gap. So Apex’s driver slowly deployed the brakes and came to a controlled stop at the Transition Flag to avoid a collision. Apex was granted a reroll for later in the day.
  • Other DQs. In Men’s Prelims Heat 9, SigNu B’s Bungarus Krait couldn’t stop in time and failed drops, though they were well short of making Finals anyway.
• Other Notable All Gender Heats.
  • All Gender Heat 1 – As mentioned above, with the All Gender division being new, All Gender Heat 1 was particularly notable, as the single buggy heat allowed Fringe A and Burnout to be the first All Gender team to ever complete the race.
  • All Gender Heat 2 – In fact, all 3 All Gender heats ended up being notable, because each heat saw a new course record set! After Fringe A’s Burnout set the record in Heat 1 at 3:28.49, both PiKA A’s Raptor and Spirit A’s Inviscid broke that record, with PiKA setting the new bar at 2:49.85. But Heat 2 wasn’t just a course record; it was also a very exciting race. PiKA and Spirit went into the Freeroll nearly simultaneously, with Raptor just ahead of Inviscid. However, Inviscid was rolling faster and moved to the outside as they approached the Stop Sign, completing the pass and being the first to Hill 3. But the Spirit Hill 3 pusher missed the pickup, and with the variety of push teams on the front and back hills for the All Gender division, PiKA was able to pass Spirit back on Hill 4, going on to win the heat.
  • All Gender Heat 3 – Heat 3 would be the only heat that saw 2 podium placements, with Apex A’s Firefly ultimately picking up the 2:45.58 course record, and CIA A’s Equinox edging out Spirit A for 3rd.  But this heat, too, was an exciting one. CIA went into the Freeroll well in front of Apex, and kept that going until the backhills. But Apex stacked their Backhills push team, and Firefly came flying up on Hill 4, passing Roadrunner and pulling away to victory.

• The Exhibition Roundup – 2023. Sweepstakes’ decision in 2022 to run some exhibitions on Day 1 to beat the weather led to the idea of doing 2 days of Exhibitions for Raceday 2023. And by splitting them between pre-race and post-race, a record number of Exhibitions took place in 2023, with 14 in total (including 3 robotic heats and 1 advisor grudge match).
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 1 – Faculty Heat 1 – ResEd (Inviscid*) vs. Athletics (Kraken*) – This was a barn-burner of a heat to kick off Raceday 2023. ResEd won the battle up the front hills, but the shove was almost simultaneous, and the gap stayed small throughout the Freeroll. Chaos ensued on Hill 3 though, as neither team realized how far buggies could roll on their own. Both pushers waited way too far down into the Chute, and had to run to catch up to the buggies. ResEd got to the buggies first…but chose the one that was closer to them, which was Kraken. So the Athletics team was left to pick up Inviscid, which actually started to roll backwards by the time the pusher caught up to it. On the Backhills though, the Athletics department’s training won out, and they passed ResEd on Hill 4, on their way to a victory in the heat.
    • Rosters:
      • ResEd – Jacob Cohen (Hill 1, SSR), Matt Kwiatkowski (Hill 1.5, ResEd), Kevin Monahan (Hill 2, CPDC), Annette Muller (Hill 3, UHS), Sarah Kurz (Hill 4, CPDC), Anne Taylor (Hill 5, Housing)
      • Athletics – Molly McCracken (Hill 1, Coordinator of Recreation), Kyle Goldcamp (Hill 2, Campus Minister), Shea Little (Hill 3, Asst. Strength & Conditioning Coach), David Sloan (Hill 4, Associate Men’s Basketball Coach), Ben Gibboney (Hill 5, Football Defensive Coordinator), Jarred Novotny (Hill 5.5, Coordinator of Club Sports and Intramurals), with Sachi Onichi (SigEp) driving Kraken
    • Times:
      • ResEd – 3:18.50
      • Athletics – 2:54.80
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 2 – Robobuggy (Short Circuit) – Some details are covered above under “Autonomous Success”. Outside of that, it was a pretty clean race, though the buggy didn’t have a ton of speed. More information on the team and roll can be found in the Robotic division of our database.
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 3 – Faculty Heat 2 – MCS (Solaris) vs. CIT (Roadrunner). The second faculty race was a renewal of the 2019 faculty grudge match between MCS and CIT. And this time, CIT flipped the script, dominating the race from the start and beating not only MCS, but all the other faculty teams, earning their first ever Faculty victory.
    • Rosters:
      • MCS – Ken Hovis (Hill 1, Asst. Dean for Educational Initiatives), Eric Yttri (Hill 2, Biological Sciences Associate Professor), Maggie Braun (Hill 3, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs), Lisa Iruguin (Hill 4, Director of Development), and Drew Bridges (Hill 5, Biological Sciences Asst. Professor), with Maggie Blair (Apex) driving Solaris
      • CIT – Bill Nace (Hill 1, Teaching Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering), Albert Presto (Hill 1.5, Associate Research Professor, Mechanical Engineering), Jerry Wang (Hill 2, Assistant Professor,  Civil & Environmental Engineering), Aaron Johnson (Hill 3, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering), Vincent Sokalski (Hill 4, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering & Public Policy), Mark Bedillion (Hill 5, Teaching Professor, Mechanical Engineering), and Lorrie Cranor (Hill 5.5, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering & Public Policy), with Abby Glass (CIA) driving Roadrunner
    • Times:
      • MCS – 3:08.57
      • CIT – 2:44.67
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 4 – SDC Men’s A – While this one counts as an Exhibition due to the Unsportsmanlike Conduct DQ discussed above, we’ve got this heat in our official database as the Men’s A race. The heat itself was uneventful, and SDC’s time of 2:16.58 would have edged out Spirit B for 4th by 0.01 seconds had it not been for the DQ
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 5 – Faculty Heat 3 (vs. Fringe) – CaPS (Roadrunner) vs. Fringe Alumni (Brimstone). Even with some confusion over Roadrunner at the Starting Line and a missing Hill 1 pusher for CaPS, the CaPS team took the lead on the front hills and went into the Freeroll with a decent lead. But once again, the Hill 3 pickup came back to bite a faculty team (unfortunately thanks to yours truly not knowing which buggy CaPS was going to be pushing and placing the Hill 3 pusher in the wrong location). This allowed the Fringe alum team to catch up and pull even on Hill 4, finally putting the CaPS team away at the Hill 5 transition and drawing off to win the heat by daylight.
    • Rosters:
      • CaPS – Sam Thompson (Hill 1, former CIA Chair and emergency CaPS replacement), Susan Morine (Hill 2, CaPS Psychiatrist), Sara Mark (Hill 3, Psychiatric Case Manager), Lukas Erbeldinger (Hill 4, Friend of CaPS), and Grace Wei (Hill 5, CaPS Staff Therapist), with Abby Glass (CIA) driving Roadrunner
      • Fringe Alumni – Sam Connor (Hill 1), Aubrey Higginson (Hill 1.5), Dave Singh (Hill 2), Diya Nuxoll (Hill 3), Adrian Kager (Hill 4), and Jason Chadwick (Hill 5), with Kyrsten Riovanos driving Brimstone
    • Times:
      • CaPS – 3:02.28
      • Fringe – 2:52.18
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 6 – Atlas (Baby Buggy) – More information on the team and roll can be found in the Robotic division of our database. But shout out to Atlas’s pusher Ram Potham. And yes, we said Pusher. Singular. Ram managed to push the entire course. And with a final time of 7:01.06, he was on about an eight-minute mile pace while pushing a remote controlled stroller-esque buggy.
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 7 – Fringe (Burnout) vs. Fringe (Bumper) – This Fringe on Fringe violence ended up being a pretty exciting heat, thanks to the combination of the push team that went with Bumper. It took Fringe a bit to get Bumper out to the line, putting it down on “Set” (and getting it down a little awkwardly), but that was perfect for the Hill 1 pusher, who started pushing as soon as the buggy hit the ground. That was enough to give Bumper the lead over the front hills. But Burnout, much like most other buggies, is much faster than Bumper in the Freeroll, and Burnout continued gaining as they rolled down the course. Burnout finally caught up just before the Chute Flag and went for the inside pass, easily and safely making the Chute turn ahead of Bumper, and widening the gap in the process, giving the Burnout team the lead and eventually the win.
    • Rosters:
      • Burnout – Ashton Jones (Hill 1), Neha Joshi (Hill 2), Elizabeth Carney (Hill 3), Vivian Beaudoin (Hill 4), Seema Kamath (Hill 5), and Ihita Mandal (Driver)
      • Bumper – Hunter Rideout (Hill 1), Declan Kelly (Hill 2), Alex Muralles (Hill 3), Gordon Wissinger (Hill 4), Andrew Wissinger (Hill 5), and Mansi Ghandi (Driver)
    • Times:
      • Burnout – 2:58.47
      • Bumper – 3:08.57
  • Friday Exhibition Heat 8 – Apex (Molotov) – This was an uneventful heat of Apex alums, who put up a decent Exhibition time of 3:03.28.
  • Saturday Exhibition Heat 1 – Spirit Drivers (Inviscid) – Initially, Spirit was expected to go up against the Apex drivers in Lane 2. However, Apex had an issue with Phoenix at the starting line, and when the gun went off, they decided not to roll. Instead, Sweepstakes would give them their own exhibition at the end of the day. Spirit, meanwhile, would finish the heat in 3:21.44 to kick off Day 2.
  • Saturday Exhibition Heat 2 – Sweepstakes Advisor Grudge Match – The details on this one are up above, under “The Sweepstakes Advisor is [moving on to another role at the University]. Long live the Sweepstakes Advisor!“
  • Saturday Exhibition Heat 3 – Robobuggy (Short Circuit). In what is probably the smoothest race in Robobuggy’s history, the buggy stayed clean and straight, kept its speed through the entire Freeroll, and set an autonomous course record in the process. Some details are covered above under “Autonomous Success”, but more information on the team and roll can be found in the Robotic division of our database.
  • Saturday Exhibition Heat 4 – CIA Mechanics (Kingfisher) vs. Spirit Mechanics (Zuke) – Kingfisher came out to the line wearing a CIA cape, but that didn’t seem to slow it down any, as the CIA mechanics pulled out into the lead and never looked back. That was a good thing though, as Zuke had some trouble in the Chute. Maybe because of its spin earlier in the day, the driver took a wider line into the Chute turn and appeared to understeer slightly. The buggy ended up a bit too wide and the back left wheel clipped the outer bales, dragging to a stop further up the Chute.
    • Times:
      • CIA Mechanics – 2:35.67
      • Spirit Mechanics – DNF
  • Saturday Exhibition Heat 5 – Sweepstakes (Banshee) vs. BAA (Bumper) – After it was cancelled in 2022 due to weather, the long-awaited Sweepstakes vs. BAA grudge match finally took place. Of course, the deck was stacked before the race even began, as Sweepstakes managed to secure the usage of PiKA’s Banshee, while they forced the BAA to push Fringe’s Bumper (the BAA had reportedly secured Inferno, but due to the SDC DQ discussed above, Inferno was not allowed to participate). Unfounded rumors abound even further that Bumper’s driver was instructed to tap the brakes, while PiKA loaded up Banshee with Raceday-caliber wheels. Still, the BAA got the upper hand on the front hills, and went into the Freeroll well in front. But the speed differences between Banshee and Bumper were too much for the BAA to overcome. Banshee would pass Bumper just before the Stop Sign like it was standing still (was it?????). and would open up a huge lead by the time they reached the Backhills. The BAA cut into the lead on Hills 3-5 (even with BAA Hill 3 pusher Ben Matzke taking off the Chute commentator headset as the buggy reached the bales and picking up Bumper before it finished getting through the bales). But in the end, the unconfirmed “shortest Sweepstakes committee in Buggy history” managed to defeat their elders.
    • Rosters:
      • Sweepstakes – James Wong (Hill 1, Sweepstakes Chair), Isabel Vala (Hill 2, Ass. Chair), Elena Harllee (Hill 3, Design Comp Chair), Elizabeth Zapanta (Hill 4, Marketing and Communications Chair), Ale Bonacini (Hill 5, Safety Chair), and Juju Nieto (Driver, Buggy Book Chair)
      • Buggy Alumni Association – Connor Hayes (Hill 1, BAA President), Willy Clark (Hill 2, BAA Vice President), Ben Matzke (Hill 3, Former BAA President), Wade Gordon (Hill 4, BAA Treasurer), and Jeremy Tuttle (Hill 5, BAA Quartermaster)
    • Times:
      • Sweepstakes – 3:06.99
      • Buggy Alumni Association – 3:18.42
  • Saturday Exhibition Heat 6 – Apex Drivers & Alumni (Phoenix) – The final heat of Raceday 2023 went to Apex, in the rescheduling of their roll from earlier in the day as part of the timing heat. Featuring a number of drivers and alumni, the heat went off without a hitch, successfully closing out the day, with Apex putting up a time of 3:36.19.
  • Other Exhibition Notables – There was early talk of bringing back an old buggy, PhiKap’s Streak, to show off in an Exhibition. The brothers of PhiKap from 1972-1973 had gotten the buggy back in working order, but the timing didn’t end up working out. This planted the seed for the future though, and it wouldn’t be too long before a Vintage Buggy Exhibition would take place.