Guess what, rolls could be starting as soon as THIS SUNDAY!
To reintroduce people to the teams, former Sweepstakes chair Anthony Pacella wrote a quick synopsis of the teams and where they stand as of last year. Enjoy!
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It’s that time of the month…
For a Buggy rant. Before we start rolling I thought it would be prevalent to look at the teams on a deeper level as kind of an update for all the alumni who aren’t around to really get that firsthand look and have missed how the teams have changed.
- AEPi. You have to love them because of that awesome buggy atmosphere they bring to the course. A part from the smooth jazz coming from their spot at the Hill 1-2 transition, the dynamic of their team seems to moving from the nerdy guys who brought you RoboBuggy to an athletic, competitive push team we are used to seeing from the other fraternities. They have a ways to go with builds but they are on the right track. I really hope they can bring out a new buggy to help match the competitive trend.
- APEX , for those who don’t know, is a new student organization that replaced Pioneers. They have seen 2 Racedays and built a new buggy. Not bad. The hardest thing for any organization is to come out to buggy and expect to compete with speed titans like SDC but they have and continue to do so. The biggest issues they have are experience and identity. I guess they are still trying to figure out who they are but I usually see their chairman in Fringe or CIA apparel and not many others in APEX gear. They used to have guidance from Pioneer alumni but the eldest members now are juniors.
- CIA reminds me of the Cinderella Story during March Madness. You never expect them to win but it would be awesome if they did. Their buggies have come so far the past few years and are getting even faster. I hear they have wrenches too. Their spirits are still high even after a disappointing Women’s result this past raceday. Besides that they have proved that CIA is a team that will make Day 2 and may take Design comp. If they get a fast push team, I expect to see them within the top 5.
- Fringe has had a rough couple racedays. With their fleet of great buggies the team should have better results. Their recent success, I think, put them into a false sense of accomplishment. What I mean is that the team relied too much on a few mechanics and we saw a drop in attendance at rolls. Hopefully, a couple hard losses with inspire a team with their potential to come out strong this semester.
- KapSig, we hope to see you out there.
- PiKA has had better days. We have seen a decline in performance since 2008 which can be caused by their recent luck with the school. That being said they have bounced back with new buggy builds and new determination. However, like other teams, great buggies can only get you so far. They have lost a number of brothers including their campus house, so numbers and where they build will play crucial roles in how they operate. Good news is that they still have a strong group of mechanics running things. Rumors have it that their new pledge class is rather small but I’m sure there are some speed demons in the mix.
- ROTC formed a team and I hope they keep racing!
- SAE has been trying to figure out if they want to be serious about buggy. They have touched up Rubicon to make they faster and built a new buggy. I think their Tridelt drivers are more excited for buggy than most of the house seems to be; hopefully that changes and we see the full potential of SAE.
- SDC has been and will always be, well, SDC. They have their way of doing things and it’s been working. With their Skittle painted fleet of buggies and their ability to get some of the fastest people on campus continues to make them a power house on raceday. They are coming off a strong win from 5 months ago and they are pretty confident they will stay on top.
- SigEp is in an interesting period in their buggy program. Their building has come a long way since Pandora but has hit some hard bumps along the way. They have had Barracuda as the A-Team buggy since 2008 because the builds have come up short in some way. SigEp needs to come out strong this semester with Kraken, the new buggy that got damaged on Truck Weekend, as well as a possible new buggy in the spring. Like teams with fast buggies, a fast push team can only get you so far. If SigEp can replace some of their fleet with faster buggies, they can pair it with very competitive and returning A-Team and B-Team.
- SigNu has had a rough few years. Despite their great technology they haven’t had a driver more more than a year and the chapter has had a vast loss in numbers. It is unfortunate to see such a well known and respected racing team hit hard times. This year they took another hit with the loss of their house on the quad due to low numbers. Hopefully we will see a rise in SigNu but it will be some time as they get more members and adjust to new buggy quarters.
- Spirit has seen some changes in what we’ve been seeing. They were plagued with crashes in the chute for a number of racedays but I think we have seen the last of that trend, thanks to Evan Moss. Spirit’s numbers have never been a problem nor has the ability to have insanely fast push teams. This is why I expected them to take Top 3 this past raceday. However, Spirit’s lack of success is rooted in a lack of discipline. If this can be remedied, we can expect the success of Spirit to rise quickly.
Zoo says:
What, no SigNu update?
Connor Hayes says:
So for a legitimate Apex update and not one that attacks what I wear:
After two years running with the same group of leaders, Apex has swapped over to a new group I’m charge from chairman to push captain. We have a lot of excitement and are pitting ourselves as we always have: the open team. We have been working on the designs for a new more daring build with a whole host of knowledge from our previous build. She should be out in the spring as something we can proudly place next to Fringe and SDC buggies.
We have doubled our mechanic numbers, are getting great attendance at events and really look headed towards a great year. You will see us all decked out in red on Sunday.
Dan Dan the Delta Man says:
Sometimes a crack at your fashion sense is just that. On the whole, it’s a mighty nice review of your team.
Realist says:
PiKA’s problems have nothing to do with “their recent luck with the school”. There’s no luck involved when you have one person die and another end up with severe brain trauma within a few years. Their problem is a lack of responsibility, not luck.
Aileen says:
Thank you, that jumped out at me as well. They made their own “luck” in this situation, and I, for one, don’t exactly give them a lot of pity.
Zatch says:
To be fair, in a fraternity situation you often have a team that is subject to the level of responsibility of people that have no interest or involvement in the team at all. Views on Pika as an organization put aside (as I’m not going to sit here and defend them), luck is probably the right word when thinking about the individuals running the Buggy program there.
If SDC Booth managed to get someone injured through negligence and poor decision making, or one of the social non-buggy members of CIA got sick or injured at a party, their buggy teams could as easily be hindered through no buggy team fault (I have nothing against those teams, don’t hate me for randomly named examples). Don’t pity the organization, but it’s worth respecting the individuals that persevere through other people’s poor decisions and make something respectable happen. It would be the easiest thing to just shed the name and operate elsewhere, but they are working to keep their buggy team legacy intact.
hill 420 says:
drunk and blazed push practice with firecrackers begs to differ
NotAFOAD says:
Gotta agree with this. Since this is a buggy website can’t we stick to hating Pika for the shitty things they do at buggy rather than all the other shitty things?
a FOAD says:
Yeah, why can’t we crap on Pika for always hangin’ around buggy events and always being a bully? Those guys are a bunch of smug bastards.
Chill Guys says:
Everyone has done stupid shit on the course over the years. Yes there have been some easily nameable incidents with PiKA in recent memory, but everything has been addressed. The thing to pay attention to is that their team, Sweepstakes, and the rest of the involved organizations have moved on. Rivalry can be a great thing, and I for one am happy that we at least have them to compete against still.
For the record, I’m not a huge PiKA fan (and have definitely been known to hate on various teams on CMUBuggy) but I think it’s time that we slam orgs for things that they do now, not things that previous members have done that aren’t necessarily representative of the current state of the org. i.e. Pike now uses tiny wheels because they thought Fringe used them on RD11. Let’s talk about that!
Dexys Midnight Runners says:
Zatch, you lose points for not starting your reply with, “Come on Aileen . . .”
Aileen says:
Perhaps buggy legend has persisted to convey my *intense* distaste for that song.
BuggyLeaks says:
I have it confirmed by a confidential source within CIA that they do in fact have wrenches, and that these wrenches are classifiable as “so legit”.
CIA_source says:
You seem to have misunderstood me. It happens often enough when using those damn voice modulators. I said, “the existence or non-existence of CIA’s wrenches is classified, so leave it alone.”