Posted on | by Sam Swift

2 weekends of rolls in the books and we’re up to 7 orgs, we’re seeing some speed, and also the usual assortment of challenges to overcome.  This also marks the first edition of our collaborative rolls report format.  I was out of town and a these fine folks stepped up and got the job done for us: Ben Matzke, Zachary Waldman, Hannah Rosenblum, and Andrew Hundt.  I also very much appreciate everyone who contributed pictures (either by uploading them which is still a bit tedious, or by sending me a link to their collection).  Without further ado or any editing on my part …

The weather Saturday was a little worrisome, but no rain materialized.  7am weather was high 50’s and overcast.  Sunday would have been even nicer but rolls were not scheduled because of the Great Race.

In Attendance

Org Saturday
AEPi Kamikaze
CIA Ascension, Firebird, Quasar
Fringe Bonsai, Borealis, Bedlam, Banyan, Blizzard
KapSig Apache
SDC Bane, Malice, Rage
SigEp Mamba, Barracuda
Spirit Zuke, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka

Observations (Saturday Gallery)

  • We had a speed gun in the chute this morning. Bonsai, Borealis, Ascension, Firebird, Kamikazie, Zuke, Bane, and Malice all clocked speeds of 30MPH or more coming in to the chute.
  • Fringe was able to get around the course this week, but had the big incident of the day. The new driver in Blizzard had some problems with visibility at the chute flag and failed to turn. She finally started to turn enough to miss the barricades, but hit the curb before the bales at the left corner of the entrance to the chute. The driver did not appear to use the brakes, and hit the curb at her top clocked speed of 24MPH. She glanced off the curb nose first, stripping the blue paint off, and finally came to a stop on the bridge on Schenley Drive. On impact the hatch came flying off and the windshield was split in two. Given the severity of the impact, the driver was relatively unharmed. She had a couple of scrapes and some sore spots, but no apparent major injury. We were impressed by the driver’s resilience, showing a positive attitude after the crash. On a later roll, Bedlam came to an abrupt halt on the back hills with no obvious reason. On a brighter note, Bonsai clocked the fastest speed through the chute at 33MPH, pretty quick for the second day of rolls this year.
  • SDC’s Malice was making a racket going around the course. It sounded like metal was rattling inside the buggy. From the top of hill 2 I’m pretty sure we heard it make the 3-4 transition.
  • Spirit had 2 spins in the chute, with the following buggies making controlled stops at yellow flags. Neither one had contact with the bales. On a more interesting note, the pushbar broke on one of their buggies. The buggy was giving them the finger, with the pushbar pointing straight up.
  • CIA’s new driver in Quasar got a little confused navigating the course and didn’t turn at the chute flag. She stopped just after the flag and with some encouragement was pushed through the chute and up the hill. CIA was also back to Staging out of baker though used PiKA’s spot as a nice follow car parking space between rolls. Freyja was dropped but never rolled.
  • It is great to see Kap Sig out on the course. They had some problems keeping Apache going, having to push it starting from as early as the transition flag.
  • AEPi’s Kamakazie was flying around the course like a rocking chair on wheels when it hit all of the cracks in the chute. The speed was impressive, clocking 30MPH or more multiple times. She has a scary line to watch, as she holds the initial line very tight and almost clips the outside bales every time.
  • As has been said many times before, the chute and back hills are a treacherous mine field of pot holes. It makes buggy even more exciting to watch as the drivers look out of control bouncing around the cracks.
  • The events this morning bring up the importance of driver safety and education for new drivers. All of the orgs should stress to their drivers that the brakes are there for a reason. If they cannot see or are unsure of what they are supposed to be doing, they should use them. Brakes brakes brakes brakes brakes.
  • Rolls got to a very timely start, exactly at 7:00 and with the overcast morning still fairly dim. Nice to see Sweepstakes looking to fit in the rolls early. They are still figuring out the logistics, though, issuing a last roll call at 8:40 before they changed their minds and got a few more turns in. The rotation was completed over three times, with AEPi, Fringe, SDC, Spirit, and SigEp getting a fourth roll around.
  • Adding to the issues sweepstakes will face is a particularly bad day for bikers and groups of runners on the course. While many were stopped, one or two blew past barricades even with barricaders paying attention. Maybe some caution tape stretched across the road will make people realize the barricades aren’t just for cars?

14 thoughts on “Collaborative Rolls Report: 9/24/11”

  • Sara says:

    Excellent work by the flaggers for getting the stop flags out and by the following drivers for making controlled stops.

    Also excellent work by whoever brought out the speed gun. That is very cool.

  • Jake Reid says:

    Just a little thing, it’s “Kamikaze,” not “Kamikazie.” It’s misspelled twice in there.

    Besides that, though, loving the collaborative rolls report. Keep up the good work guys!

    • Sam Swift says:

      I wasn’t there but the phrase “speed gun” makes me think it was a handheld radar gun. They’ve been around before. Is it CIA that has one these days?

      • Jerry Carlson says:

        CIA does have a radar gun, and since Ben and Zack were working on this report I imagine it got put to use. For a little reference, some of the fastest times we measured last year were: Bonsai at 39mph, Malice, Raptor, and other fast ones at 38mph.

        Granted, there were a couple of times it glitched; both Chaos and Zephyrus were clocked at over 200mph.

    • DeVos says:

      I talked to one of the SAE guys at the TOC and he said that they had pretty much exhausted their supply of wheels. They were thinking about retrofitting Rubicon with new wheels, probably Xootrs. If that turns out to be the case, I can understand why they might be missing for the first few weeks of rolls (or more).

          • Woot says:

            SAE will be hopefully rolling in November! Rubicon is being worked on to use the Xootr wheels, but it’s taking some time to get it done, although it IS actually happening! They’ll be out rolling definitely spring semester, but hopefully during the last few weeks this semester.

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