Note: make sure to glance at the announcements section at the bottom! Some exciting pre-raceday updates from the BAA

TL;DR: 129 rolls through the whole weekend! A nice break from the chaos of the last few weeks. and 9 qualified drivers for raceday!

Please submit any photos from this weekend here:

2/25: https://cmubuggy.smugmug.com/upload/8gdhh7/guestupload
2/26: https://cmubuggy.smugmug.com/upload/6GfdfF/guestupload

View photos here:

2/25: https://cmubuggy.smugmug.com/2022-2023/Spring-Rolls-Feb-25/
2/26: https://cmubuggy.smugmug.com/2022-2023/Spring-Rolls-Feb-26/

Thank you to Connor this week for your help with reporting!

Apex: The red squad showed up with a relatively small crew compared to their turnout so far this year. On Saturday, Firefly & Molotov each got 3 rolls before Apex packed up for the day. These rolls included pass tests for both buggies and qualified a new driver in Molotov and a returning in Firefly. On Sunday, the team put a bit some focus into qualifying a new driver in Phoenix. They still need a pass test and a handful of rolls to qualify Solaris, Phoenix and a potential new build that we’re hoping to see after spring break. Last years, new build Nova remains in the garage and we can only assume it won’t be rolling any time soon.

CIA: CIA staged from the bottom of the hill one starting their raceday prep early this year. They rolled 3 buggies on Saturday, Emperor, Equinox and Road Runner. Their first 3 rolls saw the team complete pass test for all of those buggies. On Sunday, we saw Kingfisher, Equinox, and Roadrunner for some additional rolls. Roadrunner, Kingfisher and Equinox are now all qualified for raceday for CIA. They have 2 more drivers that need qualifying, and with one driver taking over Emperor from another this semester, we can speculate that there may be a new buggy coming from the CIA garage.

DG: DG is now rolling Insite, Fringe’s build from 2003. We last saw this buggy roll in a raceday with Apex in 2012, and it definitely needs some tuning. Even though it only had 1 bag, it kept crawling to a stop before Panther hollow. One of 2 new drivers for DG this year successfully completed 4 rolls before DG went home for the day. We are all hoping that they manage to get the additional 11 rolls + pass test that they need in time for raceday.

Fringe: On Saturday, Fringe came out with a handful of people and only Bumper. They’ve rolled 4 buggies this year but only Bumper is close to qualifying, with their driver needing just a pass test. On Sunday, we saw Bumper out again, and Baltic made its semester debut, getting five and four rolls respectively. Getting Baltic, Burnout and Blind Faith qualified requires a pass test and at least 6 rolls for each. Plus with Fringe, we have to imagine a new buggy is on its way that needs 10 rolls plus a pass test.

PiKA: Despite having seven driver/buggy combos caped this year, PiKA has only rolled Banshee so far this semester. They were only out Sunday this week, with a relatively issue-less day, other than a small vision issue in their first roll around the course. They only got three rolls in this weekend, and will still need a few more + pass test in order to be qualified for raceday.

Robobuggy: NAND got 2 rolls on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, seemed like a relatively easy day for the team.

SigEp: SigEp was only out on Sunday this weekend, rolling a new driver in Kraken and a returning driver in Barracuda. They seem to be making steady progress towards qualifying both in time for raceday, and had no big issues!

SigNu: The resurgence continues as Sig Nu was out Saturday with 2 buggies for the first time in years. The team rolled either Jager or krait on a given roll. Neither buggy was going particularly fast, but with new drivers in each that was probably a smart move. On one driver’s first ever roll in Krait, she came through Schenley park on the left side of the double yellow line. Luckily she found her way back to the correct side of the road before the transition and successfully finished the course. Her line improved significantly as the day went on. We were happy to see the team out two days in a row, rolling only Jager on Sunday. They continue to take things a little slow, which seems to be a good idea given the number of accidents and issues we’ve seen with new drivers on the course across all teams this year.

Spirit: The reigning women’s champion was by far the most regimented team on this weekend. On Saturday rolled 3 buggies, Zuke, KP and Seraph, and on Sunday we saw the same 3 and Inviscid. The team was by far the fastest over the very slow weekend, but that wasn’t saying much as they rolled max 3 windows. The team was timing and mixing up lineups on hills looking ahead to find their best combinations for raceday. Spirit has now qualified all of their buggies and drivers, the first team to do so. Those buggies are Inviscid, Kingpin, Zuke, and Seraph.

A super special thanks to the following people for their help:

Connor Hayes

Sweeps + BAA

BAA Announcements:

Congratulations to this year’s funded grants! Full descriptions can be found here.

Additionally, our raceday 2023 tshirt group order form is open! Customers will have to pay for it themselves and get is shipped to their homes before race day. Shirt is $26 dollars and features a special drawing on the back. Can be ordered anytime between now and midnight est March 15th. Thank you deeply to Linna for all of her work on this!

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