We’ve officially entered October! This weekend was Family Weekend, which saw our first look at the Greek orgs. We saw two whole days of mostly smooth rolls, giving us plenty of footage for an accompanying video report. And, I once again have car-related buggy updates to share — read on for more!
Plus a bonus shoutout to Dan, Guillermo, and Rob for grabbing notes and photos for me this weekend!
| Org | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Apex | Solaris, Molotov, Scorch | Helios, Scorch, Molotov |
| CIA | Goldfinch, Kingfisher, Roadrunner | Starling, Roadrunner |
| DG | — | Banta |
| Fringe | Baltic, Bermuda, Blind Faith | Bermuda, Baltic |
| PiKA | Raptor | — |
| Robobuggy | Short Circuit, NAND | — |
| SDC | Lust, Avarice, Vice | Lust, Avarice, Vice, Paranoia |
| Spirit | Inviscid, Seraph, Zuke | Inviscid, Seraph |
Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) | Sunday Gallery (upload)
General Observations
- The Greeks return! It seems that recruitment may have wrapped up, and both PiKA and DG made one-day appearances this weekend. While it doesn’t look like any of the other frats have caped yet, they do have several weeks to get organized with Fall Break coming up
- With temperatures cooling, it’s perhaps making teams a little sluggish to get onto the course. Saturday saw some orgs scratching rolls due to not being ready when they were cleared.
- I’m having deja vu — we find this poor Hyundai once again needing a jump start. On the flip side, Fringe’s follow car had no issues getting around the course. While I don’t think they got a time trial in, this may top this list as coolest follow car we’ve had on the course.
Team Observations
Apex — Saturday saw Apex’s usual mix of Solaris, Molotov, and Scorch. However, Sunday we got to see Helios back out on the course. Sources say that it hadn’t been out to rolls yet, since that particular buggy-driver combo were already very experienced. This seems to be the case, as she was getting some of the fastest times going in to the chute. All their buggies got around the course cleanly this weekend.
CIA — No major updates for CIA this week. As per usual, I can report that all of their buggies are rolling fast, with Goldfinch and Starling at the top. Kingfisher has comparable speed, but is likely losing out on Hill 3 with a weaker rollout. Meanwhile, Roadrunner was out both days and finished up the remainder of its bagged rolls.
DG — DG made an appearance for just Sunday this weekend, bringing out Banta. They were able to get through all of her bagged rolls by the end of the morning. She was rolling well and getting up to speed nicely, with times right in line with some of the other top buggies.
Fringe — Aside from their follow car, Fringe brought out Baltic, Bermuda, and Blind Faith — their standard combo of buggies for this semester. It seems like Faith has been rolling well, at least to the point of almost passing Bermuda. Meanwhile, they’ve continued to run into hiccups getting their new Baltic driver around the course. They had a couple stops around the course, including one by transition flag, similar to last week, after rolling over a grate.
PiKA — PiKA was shorthanded on Saturday, needing to scratch on their first roll. They also employed what seemed to be paper bags, which, while environmentally conscious, did not appear to open that well behind the buggy. Raptor finished their bagged rolls by the end of Saturday and closed with one of the fastest speeds coming in to the chute.
Robobuggy — Robobuggy was also had fewer folks out than usual, peeling off at the chute to avoid pushing the backhills. This year, they still have their VR headsets, but they seem to be drilling their passes between Short Circuit and NAND early this year, getting at least 2 in this weekend.
SDC — SDC started rolling their buggies bagged this weekend, though all of them but Paranoia were bagless by the end of Sunday. They picked up some speed relative to last weekend, however their buggies are still in the slower half of times we’ve been recording. SDC also had a pause during one roll due to a near miss with a squirrel, but was able to continue.
Spirit — While CIA may have solid speed paired with consistency across buggies, Spirit so far might be edging them out on pure speed. Seraph was clearly and consistently the fastest buggy we saw going in to the chute. Further, Spirit is the first org (besides Robo) to start in on their pass tests. Some other events of note — one buggy needing to brake for a deer crossing, some fishtailing from Inviscid, and a slow-on-the-draw flagger nicking a pushbar with the flag.
Thanks to Guillermo, Rob, and Dan for helping with notes and photo/video coverage this week!
If you’d like to come out to gather notes or pictures during rolls, feel free to sign up here. Links to upload photos are there, and if you would like to be credited, reach out via email (data@cmubuggy.org) or on Discord (@Barsham). Additional notes and corrections to this report are welcome, reach out via email (jameswong@cmubuggy.org) or on Discord (@jamestwong)