To all those alumni and parents that made it out this weekend, it was great to see you and I hope you were able to have a great time enjoying the Ceilidh festivities. We here at the BAA had an overall great time with only a couple setbacks at rolls. This was the first weekend where both days started with buggies rolling around the course even though one of them threatened to be wet. Saturday rolls not only saw Robobuggy continue to roll and gather data, but also got to see FSAE race around the course in both their gas and new electric race cars. Unfortunately, after only a couple buggies hit the course, an exhausted pusher took a scary tumble and was rushed to the hospital forcing rolls to be called short.

Those of us on campus Saturday afternoon had the great opportunity to witness Tom Wood’s fantastic and up to date “Evolution of Buggy Technology” presentation. In addition to the presentation itself, there was a great group of current students who stuck around after the talk to mingle with, answer questions for, and show off their buggies to the parents and alumni who were in attendance.

Before all the excitement over the weekend, CMU honored one of our own for the annual Alumni Awards. The very man who used to tell you all about what was going on each weekend, Sam Swift, was given the Alumni Service Award for his tireless efforts with the other founding members of the BAA to get this site up and running, and his continued work to keep the BAA strong and on message year after year. We owe a lot of thanks to his sleepless nights and we couldn’t be more proud of his achievement.

In Attendance  (Those who Rolled)

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

• AEPi – Even if AEPi had come out on Saturday, it wouldn’t have gotten them any more rolls, so they lucked out this time. They managed to roll well all morning and didn’t give us much to talk about.
• APEX – Apex was one of two teams and four buggies that managed to get a roll in on Saturday before things got put on hold for good. We still haven’t seen Ember out this year, and at this point it seems more likely that we would see a new buggy from them before a repaired Ember. Since Apex is often so open with their operations, a bet for this seems like a hard thing to pull off. Apex continued to train their new driver on Sunday who was starting to get a better handle of the chute, but still was taking some very sharp and early turns. It almost seems as if they are training their new driver for the higher speeds and not the lower speeds that she’s currently rolling at.
• CIA – Having been out on some new looking neon-wheels, CIA has been rolling up more and more every day. Whatever they have changed seems to be working as they have been matching the impressive visual speeds and rollouts of SDC so far. It seems prudent to think that SDC and Fringe, who have had the best rollouts in recent history, haven’t been going all-out, so unless CIA can keep improving, we should expect them to eventually fall behind, but just barely. Even so, this much improvement throws an entirely new possibility into the mix and could cause some very close races come April.
• Fringe – This weekend we saw the return of Fringe’s newest build to the course. Bolt had previously not rolled for unknown reasons, though her driver has been previously rolling in Beacon. A safe bet seems to be that they had some outstanding repairs or retrofits to make after rolling last year. When Bolt hit the course last year, it sported a removable fourth wheel, a first for any buggy in a very long time. The claim was made the a Fourth wheel could help lessen the impact of imperfect roads, though that improvement is yet to be seen and quantified. Fringe even seems unconvinced since we more often see the buggy without that additional wheel.
• Pika – Mysteriously skipping Saturday entirely with their tent set up, PiKA finally brought back Banshee this Sunday. Many people assumed that they were having difficulty finding a driver that could fit given the buggy’s exceptionally smaller size and the departure of her former driver after last year’s Raceday. Much to the relief of alumni and many others around the course, it seems they managed to find a new driver to fill the buggy and Pike as again returned to being a two-buggy team. Surprisingly, Banshee was seen with no bags on, which, for a new buggy and new driver, is against all of the new standards that have been put in play. No rumors as of yet of new builds for the former powerhouse, but it’s still too early to make a call for the secretive group.
• SDC – Continuing to roll well and increase the speed, it was somewhat surprising to see SDC have the only buggy to have an encounter with the bales again this weekend. However, unlike Avarice’s spin that seems to have taken her out of commission, Rage continued to roll on after her hit. The incident happened near the end of the chute where the bales were starting to thin. Having made the turn just fine, she seemed to hit a bad spot in the road, or otherwise made an uncontrolled jerk toward the inside. She recovered her bearings after being set on a collision course with the bales. Those of us in the chute expected this to stop her roll, but she managed to bounce off the bales with enough energy to be picked up by the Hill 3 at the bottom of the hill. Several people had to get the pusher’s attention before he stopped and waited for EMS to question the driver and determine her state. Meanwhile, Vice was still rolling behind Rage and managed to pass without issue into hill 3. Rage’s driver was checked out and cleared to continue up the hill and finish her roll.
• SigEp – In typical fashion, SigEp rolled well this weekend and is generally doing just fine. What might be more interesting is the lack rolls by their newest buggy Mamba who has yet to return to the course after her odd crash into the magic haybale that covers the grate between the flags a few weekends ago.  Either SigEp hasn’t managed to organize a group to get her resaftied (which seems very unlikely), or there something more serious that needs to be fixed that doesn’t have to do with the actual impact with the haybale.
• SigNu – Having come out for only the second time this weekend, SigNu is back to being a one buggy organization. Hopefully this is a temporary situation for them as we would love to see them bring back a little more competition to the field. Until then, they are continuing to roll well with Krait and rack up the rolls, though they might get a little more experience and training if they came out more than every 3rd weekend. On the more reasonable side of things, they have been cutting out their hill 5’s which is a great way to lessen the need for bodies without sacrificing much early on.
• Spirit – After last weekend’s unplanned hill 3 stops, Spirit seems to have solved their issue with the sun were making it all the way around on their Sunday rolls, even when the sun was at it’s worst. With a complete roster of veteran drivers, its surprising to still see bags on their buggies after 4 days of rolls. Given their tendency for spinning in past years, it could be a preemptive counter measure with the newly paved road surface to ensure the drivers are comfortable and in control before ramping to full speed. Then again, at this point, they may just be hurting their drivers and having them train on, and get used to the incorrect line for when they will be going much faster.
• Robobuggy – Much to everyone’s excitement, Robobuggy has been able to make a consistent showing every day of rolls this year and seems to be getting a good handle on their development. While they are still controlling the buggy from the follow car, the tiny buggy has now managed to make it completely around the course for a majority of the days of rolls. Given that they don’t need light to run, there has been no interference with any of the regular rolls activities which is of course what most teams really care about. Unfortunately, they saw their worst injury yet on Saturday bringing rolls to a halt after only two teams had completed the course. After an enthusiastic push by one of the robo-pushers, he returned to their small concession stand by CIA and PiKA’s tents. Exhausted and starting to feel dizzy, the pusher went to sit on the ledge where he apparently passed out before making it down, throwing his weight backward and off the edge and sending him head first into the sidewalk below. 911 was dialed and an ambulance was on the scene with some better equipped paramedics. As we’ve heard, he sustained minor spinal fractures and was held at the hospital overnight. Fortunately, the pusher is still in high spirits and returned to campus the next day wearing a neck brace. We all are relieved to hear this and hope him a swift and safe recovery.

FSAE Rolls: 

As an addition to the Ceilidh weekend, FSAE ran both their gas and electric powered cars around the course, much like they have at previous Carnivals. In an attempt to break the course record in their new electric racer, the driver took off from hill one and more than likely broke every hill 1 time ever. For those of us at the top of the hill, we watched as he rounded the turn toward the stopsign and chute and then waited to see him crest the backhills. We sat there a little confused while we waited as it was clearly taking far longer than it should have for him to make it up to where we should have been able to see him on hill 4. Apparently, the driver got a little overconfident and took the turn too fast causing him to spin out. He made it back up the hill, so clearly everything was OK, but he might need a little work to still break the record at this point.

Road Paving:

There have been several rumors floating around about Frew street finally getting paved and we have good news! As Jake Mohin pointed out in a comment to last week’s rolls report, CMU and the City have agreed upon a deal to pay for the road’s repaving which is where the action was being held up. CMU has agreed to pay 1/3rd of the cost with some addition from the BAA included in that 1/3rd. So literally thanks to all of you that have supported us in the past, we will be able to have completely new backhills. The question now is when.

Fortunately, we had a visitor stop by the course Saturday morning who originally was there to check-in on how the bike lane post-removal was going. After filling him in on this, we managed to ask him about Frew Street. According to this public works employee, there is no chance that the street will be paved this year as the asphalt factories have been shut down for the season. So from there it’ll depend on when they open up again next year. This might become a bit of a pickle since it seems safe to assume that the factories will open up as soon as it’s warm enough, which tends to be the same time that buggy starts again in the spring. If the winter is short, this should be no problem, but if we have another extra long winter like last year, this could become more of an issue and some hard choices might have to be made.