The BAA is once again holding our lead truck auction this year. It’s the one chance you (or a buggy fanatic in your life) have of being right in the middle of the action on Raceday. You’ll sit in the back of the lead truck for whatever race(s) you want.

Proceeds help with all the costs of putting on such a spectacular event, including the Jumbotrons everyone loves, the pilot test of the current timing system, and maintenance of a detailed historical archive.

Here’s how it works:

• The auction will open at 9 AM EDT on Tuesday April 12^th. A link will be posted on our website.
• Just like last year, we will run the auction on a third-party website. You will need to create an account with the auction site, and you can set up email alerts if you are outbid. Each heat will have a $10 minimum bid. The minimum bidding increment is $1. You may specify a maximum amount you wish to bid for any heat. Then, the site will automatically increase your bid in $1 increments as needed until your maximum is exceeded by someone else.
• There will be separate auctions for each heat of Day 1, and picks for finals heats will be split up into multiple items meaning that you will be able to bid for multiple finals picks. For example, you could bid separately for 1st pick of the men’s finals and 2nd pick of the women’s. This will also allow you to potentially win multiple finals heat picks, though for the sake of inclusiveness we encourage you to only bid for one of each men’s and women’s picks.
• Bid as much as you want, as often as you want until the auction closes at 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday April 13th
• We will send out an email to the winners, along with instructions on how to pay.
• On Raceday, check in WELL BEFORE your heat at the alumni tent and sign the waiver. Then you must be at the top of hill 2 before the start of your heat. If you’re late, then you miss your chance. The BAA cannot be the cause of delays.
• Lead truck rides are transferable. If you can’t be in town or don’t like trucks, feel free to bid on an auction and then tell us who gets to take the ride. You can also just will it to your organization of choice and we’ll let the lucky team pick who gets to ride. All riders must be at least 18 years old.

If you have any questions, be sure to email Dan at danbecerra@cmubuggy.org or comment below, we want to address as much as we can before the auction.

We are, of course extremely thankful to sweepstakes for allowing us to use a spot in the lead truck to create this opportunity and raise some money so that the Buggy Alumni Association can pursue its mission to support buggy.

Fine Print Details

All heats will be auctioned simultaneously

The bidding will start at 9am EDT Tuesday April 12th

Bidding will end at 11:59pm EDT Wednesday April 13th

Payment must be received before winners take their rides. Credit card payment will be available and is strongly preferred. Cash and Check will also be accepted at the races.

All winning bids will be considered a gift to the Buggy Alumni Association. We have worked closely with the university to make sure that your gift to the BAA is also credited as a gift to Carnegie Mellon. Be assured that 100% of your gift will go to the Buggy Alumni Association. Also, if you’re an alum celebrating a reunion, your gift to the BAA will be counted towards your class totals.

For tax recognition purposes the donor can only claim their gift amount above the Fair Market Value of the Ride Auction. The fair market value of the Buggy Alumni Association Ride Auction is $10.00. Only the amount of your donation above the fair market value of the EVENT is tax deductible. Please consult your tax advisor for more information.

If two people specify the same maximum bid, and the auction ends without any higher bids, the person that entered their maximum bid first will be the winner.

The end time (11:59pm EDT Wednesday April 13th) is fixed. There will be no extensions to allow for last minute bids. Get your bids in early and make use of the max bid feature!

Any heats that get rained out or otherwise cancelled will just void the auction for those heats. Of course, if winners of cancelled heats want to make their donations anyway, we won’t complain.

Winners should be present at the top of hill 2 at the end of the preceding heat. Failure to show up in a timely manner will result in forfeiting the ride. We can’t be the cause of any delays, so the Buggy Alumni Association will have to be conservative in our estimation of “timely manner.” Be there!

The Buggy Alumni Association and Sweepstakes reserve the right to refund donations from and refuse a ride to anyone that is intoxicated or otherwise unable to safely ride in the back of a truck.

No rides may violate Pennsylvania’s laws concerning riding in a pickup truck. Basically this means the passenger must be over 18.

Sweepstakes also reserves the right to cancel rides and have us refund donations if they need to for any reason.

This past weekend a couple of our alumni were out recording buggy speeds in two different locations on the course. One took timing data after the chute turn, but we unfortunately don’t have that compiled yet and is summarized in the second table. These data are listed in roll order as several of the buggy IDs were unable to to be collected. Shafeeq was out and using his camera system on Sunday to get terminal Freeroll speeds. That data is summarized in the first table. The rolls are ordered by increasing speed.

Unsurprisingly, SDC, Spirit, CIA, PiKA, and Fringe had the fastest rolls of the day, with Spirit and PiKA each taking 3 of the top 10 spots (Banshee for PiKA and Inviscid for Spirit). What’s truly noteworthy is that Spirit has stepped up to the top of the class. And they’re getting through the chute successfully, though they fall a second or two behind SDC/PiKA/CIA/Fringe by the time they reach Hill 3. It’s likely that driver skill and pusher beefiness are going to play big rolls in determining placement this Raceday.

Freeroll Speeds

Chute Speeds (taken at light post)

Hello Buggy Patrons,

As some of you have been requesting, here is the current membership listing for Raceday 2016. All those listed have donated at least $10 to the BAA since last Raceday. If you don’t see your name below and believe it should be, please contact us at admin[at]cmubuggy.org and we will help you sort out. Continue reading →

And now a word from Aileen:

Hello BAA members! It’s almost the best time of the year – Spring Carnival time! Every year we publish a detailed Raceday Preview. This year, we’re looking for new input – do you have exciting insider information? Opinions about new wheels, aerodynamics, or other buggy trends? A list of complaints about how things used to be better? We would love any and all new articles, or help with existing article ideas including team season recaps and interviews with key buggy personnel. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Raceday preview, contact Aileen at aileen@cmubuggy.org.

Remember to renew your membership TODAY if you would like to get your preview as soon as it’s available. http://cmubuggy.org/membership

Calling all buggy people!

Friday Buggy Panel

With Carnival only a few short weeks away, we would like to invite anyone and everyone to come to our second Raceday Buggy Panel! We will be holding it at the same time as last year, but likely in a new location (more details on that later). We had a wonderful group of panelists last year and we would love to have some new voices on the panel this year. We are looking for both students and alumni to join the panel to give us a wide range of ideas and experiences to share with anyone that attends.

Wednesday WRCT broadcast

Continuing on, we will be having our Wednesday night broadcast on WRCT before the races to give you a live discussion of what to look out for while you’re at the races or watching from home. We are looking for some current students or local alums to join us in the booth and talk all things buggy from this year!

If you are interested in being a part of the Friday Panel or the WRCT broadcast, please contact Ben Matzke (ben.matzke@cmubuggy.org) and let him know that you’re available!

Welcome folks to another Ceilidh celebration here at the Pittsburgh Campus of CMU! For us Buggy people, this weekend is more or less business as usual. The weather looks like it will hold and the teams are ready for another full weekend of rolls. This time though, Ceilidh will bring some added bonuses.

While Ceilidh hasn’t really become a major alumni event for us, it is a time when we will have the most parents in town to see just what the hell their kids are up to. We’ll be welcoming and greeting any visitors to the course with a mini version of our Raceday Donut tent. We will likely be setting up in a similar place or closer to top of the hill. Donuts will be arriving at 7 so all teams will get a chance to grab one before rolls really get going.

Aside from rolls, we have put together a small panel of students and alums who will be sharing their experience and answering questions from the audience Saturday afternoon. This is just like the panels that we started having the last couple years, and is the first time we are doing one at Ceilidh. We’re expecting a much different audience and early numbers make it look like it’ll be VERY well attended! We will be going for an hour and a half starting at 2pm.

Given the celebration we will be attempting to livestream all weekend. Allowing you to watch and potentially interact during rolls and the panel from anywhere in the world. It’s been a while since we’ve livestreamed so forgive us if our skills aren’t up to snuff.

As an added bonus to all of our members, whether you are in town or not, you will be getting a special gift later tonight. Of course if you think you should be on the list and don’t hear from us, just let us know and we’ll correct things right away. If you’re not a member yet, head on over to the membership page and join or renew, this is one you won’t want to miss this one.