I was starting to think it would never happen, and even Sunday morning I don’t think the teams were sure it was really going to happen, but rolls have started for the semester. It only took 6 weeks from Sweepstakes’ ambitious first shot at rolls, but buggy has overcome one of Pittsburgh’s snowiest winters ever. Only four orgs made it out due to it being the second weekend of spring break, but it was all of the expected hardcore teams, SDC, PiKA, Fringe, and AEPi. Wait, AEPi? Yep, they’re one of the hardcore teams as of now.
In Attendance
| Org | Buggies |
| AEPi | Zephyrus Kamikaze |
| Fringe | Bedlam, Banyan, Blizzard |
| PiKA | Chimera, Knightfall |
| SDC | Avarice, Envy |
Observations (Full gallery of pictures here)
The big news of the week was SDC’s new buggy Avarice which was out and looking very finished. Most buggies hit the course in the spring with some paint work to do, or the windshield taped on or something. Avarice looks like they finished it and then had time to kill before brining it out. Externally, there’s not much new to talk about. It looks almost identical to last year’s Malice although probably a bit bigger. I appreciate the color choice though to aide in identification and low light photography.- In future new buggy news, CIA is planning on coming out with their new buggy next weekend. That would make new buggies in consecutive years for them for the first time since 1992.
- The police must not have expected rolls to happen because they didn’t show up. The barricaders became that much more important as they were essentially the only line of defense. Since there were only 4 orgs out, manpower was tight for all of the chores, but somehow sweepstakes did enough persuading to get all of the gaps filled.
The course was wet, dirty, and nasty. There are still huge piles of snow slowly melting around the monument keeping everything sloppy. There’s going to be some serious under-body and bearing cleaning going on.
Also contributing to the anti-rolls effort was a car parked in the chute. Sweepstakes called the towing company as per usual and was told that they tow truck guy hadn’t come into work yet. It was decided that it could be left there if it was surrounded by a healthy pile of bales. Of course, just as everyone got their first roll done (@8:20), the tow truck shows up and teams took a 10 minute break while the car was towed out. Never seen a car get towed from the chute during rolls.- It was definitely a day for skeleton crews as there was lots of crazy, push hill 2 –> jump in the car –> jump out and push hill3 type of action going on. Fringe was rolling 3 buggies each time with only 5 or 6 people total, but they were definitely going the fastest, downhill at least.
- AEPi had a spin of some sort on the last roll of the day before they even got to the chute. They were back around in the follow car after a couple of minutes.
- Push practice was an option for teams in at least the second half of spring break, but word was that only SDC had taken advantage so far. This week should see more action from more teams.
Overall, an impressive effort by sweepstakes to make it happen, and by the teams that made it out to get around the course. It feels good to finally be back in the swing of things. Get in the habit of checking back here on Monday mornings for the update. There are only 3 weekends of rolls before truck weekend, so hope for good weather!
Carsen says:
Sam, that’s some top notch reporting. I like the dedication despite St. Patty’s day.
Carleton says:
I have an insatiable desire for more… pictures of avarice.
I’m sort of surprised that Pika was rolling. To be fair though, I have no idea what the situation is right now. Now that spring break is over, is there any new developments on possible repurcussions from the university administration?
Sam Swift says:
Haha, it looks the same in every picture! I had a couple more, but I thought 5 of the 23 I posted was already a pretty heavy representation. If you want an unlimited supply, I suggest looking up pictures of Malice and using the paint bucket tool in your favorite photo editing software.
I’ve shied away from the PiKA story for lack of any good first hand information or sufficient gravitas with which to address such a matter. There were no indications I saw of anything out of the ordinary at rolls.
Zatch says:
For all of our rabid fans out there, AEPi rolled Kamikaze, not Zephyrus.
Sam Swift says:
Aww, my bad. That’s weak of me. I’m just a little rusty from the long winter. It’s fixed now.
bordick says:
Hey, don’t mess that stuff up. My pre-commentary homework consists 99% of the stuff on this site. I’m sure to make that mistake on Friday.
Hey Tommy, can you update that record sheet that we used last year?
ab
jess thurston says:
I’m going to update it too if tommy doesnt. sorry I still havent gotten back to you – i barely have time to sleep at this point. it’s like i’m building buggies again. anyway, i’ll update that stuff and get back on track with you guys soon :)
Sam Swift says:
Keep in mind that our history DB should be really good at generating broadcast reference documents like a “record sheet” show me what you’re making manually, and I can probably make a dynamic page that does it automatically and also allows you to click though and see other things about the buggies and people.
jess thurston says:
yay fancy!
TommyK says:
not likely … it’s too depressing to put SDC at the top the lists.