Sweepstakes is making and selling a run of driver-specific tank tops, and they were nice enough to ask if any alumni or other cmubuggy.org readers would like one while the order is going in.
Click on the thumbnail to take a look at the full design.
Saturday was rained out and mercifully cancelled before 8pm Friday night, leaving time for other plans.
Sunday was just one of those days. Some hold-up with the police and the outer barricades meant things didn’t get started until 7:40 or so. From then on, the same teams and buggies that rolled super efficiently last week dragged through the roll order. JB owes me “big money” on a bet that they would make it through the roll order a second time. They were 6 orgs short. Continue reading
Saturday 10/3 (full gallery here)
The rain stopped around 8pm Friday night, and sweepstakes was brave enough to bet on the course drying in 11 hours. It pretty much did. I wouldn’t have called it dry, but with a little extra caution from the orgs and drivers, things went pretty smoothly. Only 6 teams really rolled (SDC also sent one buggy down one time), so maybe the others called it a drinking night without checking the radar first.
Continue reading
Actually, it would probably be a great weekend to roll. When else are we going to have the Secret Service and the US Army helping us keep cars off the course? From what we’ve seen so far, they sure as hell know how to get the job done. There are ten foot high steel crowd barriers lining almost the entire course, and jersey barriers ready and positioned to close off the gaps.
Just a reminder to those not on the sweepstakes list not to show up to rolls this weekend expecting buggies or a warm welcome. It might also make for a bit of a slow news section until things get going again, but we’ll try to find something to entertain you.
One nice day in September is a great way to start the year of buggy. It’s early enough to capitalize on all that recruiting momentum and good weather. At the same time, the G20 superseded rolls (and everything else in pittsburgh) Sunday and next weekend. That give us all time to adapt to the fact that buggy happens way to damn early in the morning.
Rolls started right on time which I always think is a good metric on which to evaluate new sweepstakes committees. Only 8 of the 14 teams on the roll order made it out, with SigNu being the most notable absence. The starting line ups for the year were:
– Spirit : Haraka and Seraph
– SDC : Psychosis, Malice, Rage
– Fringe : Blizzard, Bantam, Bedlam, Banyan
– CIA : Firebird, Conquest, Quasar
– AEPi : Kamikaze, Zephyrus and Camo
– PiKA : Knightfall and Zeus
– PhiKap : Svengali and Schadenfreude
– SigEp : Barracuda and Pandora
Observations (Full gallery of pictures here) Continue reading
As we start a new year of rolls with a new sweepstakes committee, I realized that we computed some stats on the number of rolls in the fall of last year, but forgot to follow up on that in the spring. The idea with these stats is just to give sweepstakes and the orgs some feedback on how well their partnership is doing at getting buggies around the course.
So here is the summary for the 2009 buggy season: Continue reading
Most years in buggy see the birth, rebirth, or death of an organization but the transition from 2009 to 2010 is looking busier than usual. We hate to see anyone go, but it looks like the net migration might come out even or positive this year, so hopefully we can stay right around 50 teams on raceday. The more the merrier. Here’s the breakdown …
The off-season is officially behind us, and the 2010 season of buggy is here. The first day of rolls (weather willing) will be this Saturday, September 19th. Does that sound early? It is. Things are getting started a full 3 weeks earlier than last year making a strong case in favor of the new policy of electing the sweepstakes committee in May instead of September.
The first roll is scheduled for 6:50am on Saturday (9/19). Don’t miss Saturday, because there will be no rolls on Sunday due to the shortage of cops while they do their G20 warmups. There is a decent chance that the G20 will affect next weekend as well, but I haven’t heard anything definitive on that.
If you can’t make it out, don’t forget to check back on the site for pictures and a rolls report. Are you on a new team that isn’t rolling yet, or haven’t even joined a team yet and want a narrated explanation of rolls? Find us around the course (check the chute first) wearing shirts with the Buggy Alumni Association logo on it. We’ll be happy to answer questions.
The forecast for Saturday at 7am is sunny and 54 degrees, that’s a nice way to start the year. Good luck to everyone in the 2010 buggy season.
CMU’s Parking & Transportation Services just sent out a campus-wide e-mail announcing that Tech Street (hill 1) will be repaved starting next week. Looks like the letter writing and phone calling by sweepstakes and others was effective. Thanks guys. Let’s hope they go all the way up past Frew Street and fix the gnarly seam that runs across all three lanes.
So we’ll be back up to heats of 3 next year, and it can only make those hill 1-2’s faster. As if these kids need any more help throwing down fast times. They’re just making us alumni of the last 20 years look bad now.
Thanks Pittsburgh!
These kids aren’t just breaking course records like they’re nothing special, they’re also thinking one step ahead about running the show next year. Traditionally, the first sweepstakes meeting of the year is called by the defending champion some time in September. After a couple of meetings a committe is elected and they rush to figure out what they’re doing to get rolls started as soon as they can.
This year, they decided to do the electing now so that the committee has the entire off-season to get a feel for things and set their agenda. It makes an 8 month job into a 12 month job, but at the wages they’re getting paid, sweepstakes can afford it.
Without further ado, the raceday 2010 sweepstakes committe is:
Good luck to them, and good work outgoing committee. Thanks to Vincent for hooking me up with the official info.
