Having a rough day back in the office or classroom after an awesome raceday? Take 96 seconds and relive the feeling for a moment. Repeat as necessary throughout the week.
This video was shot and produced by Randi Voss, a CMU alum and local photographer / videographer / my wedding photographer.
If you’ve been on cmubuggy in the last 5 days since our new site debuted (and over 2,000 of you have), you’ve undoubtedly checked out its biggest new feature: the video library. For the launch we had 264 videos capturing buggy from the 1950’s through raceday 2009. Thanks to our partners in this project over at cmuTV, we have been able to share all of their terrific (and constantly improving) coverage from 2003 onward.
Part of that deal is that we keep each year’s races “in the vault” for a year while they sell DVDs which help to pay for the production. Well guess what folks, it’s been a year since raceday 2010. With no further ado, we give you …
This year’s installment comes with 40 videos including a great set of cmuTV-produced buggy promos composed of footage from rolls and set to kickin’ beats. Put a link to your favorite video on facebook and spread the word to folks that don’t yet know that all of this is online!
Other notes while I’ve got your attention:
At 9AM this morning, bidding will commence in the 3rd annual Lead Truck Auction. Don’t show up fashionably late to the bidding this year as we’ve got only 36 hours (bidding closes at 9pm wednesday) to divvy up the rides because the heat selection was held later than it has been in recent years. For the uninitiated, bidders bid on the chance to ride in the lead truck for a specific heat. Winners get to ride with the head judge and other race officials with a view of at least the lead buggy around the entire course.
Last year’s auction was a huge success and it allowed us to help sweepstakes rent not one, but two jumbotrons so that spectators can really watch the entire race from the most popular spots on the course. We saw this coming, but once you have two jumbotrons, it doesn’t sound like any fun to go back to one (or god forbid, zero). We alumni reap the majority of the benefits of these jumobtrons so if we want them to stick around we’ve got to pitch in. Bid on a lead truck ride and you get to do your part for the big screens and take a fun ride to boot.
Rides are transferable, so you can give them as gifts if you won’t be in town. Refunds are available in the event of races being rained out. Plenty of other details at:
Push practice was scheduled to start this week, but just as teams were charging up their flashlight batteries and telling their new drivers that it’s “actually kind of fun,” Sweepstakes had to put a hold on things.
Apparently, the city has decided to take a closer look at the late night road-closing permits this year and they’re not sure they like what they see. The issue is that the road closure is informal during push practice and cars are allowed to come and go as needed – relying on students to keep everything safe and orderly. This has obviously been the system for years and years without any problems, but tradition is apparently not always persuasive if you are in the business of road closure permit issuing. This long-standing compromise of semi-closed roads isn’t ideal for teams or for the poor grad students leaving campus after midnight, but it’s a very functional compromise. We can’t do without push practice, and I doubt everyone else would be happy with fully closed roads 5 nights a week. Sweepstakes is working hard with the school, CMU & Pittsburgh police, and the city to get everyone comfortable with a plan. I really hope that all parties can find a non-bureaucratic solution that doesn’t require additional expenses for sweepstakes and logistical headaches for teams.
Sweepstakes chair Chris Shellhamer notified teams today that push practice would hopefully begin after spring break (11 days from now), but that that would be the soonest it is likely to be sorted out. We’ll keep you updated here.
Sweepstakes has been on their game since they were elected last spring, the chairmen have met, the drivers have had their meeting, the chores have been assigned, and I am way behind on keeping you up to date. To make up some time, I’m going to revisit a couple of posts from last fall. First a summary of who we’ve got on the course this year (compare to the 2009 edition), and then some benchmarks from previous semesters
Overall, it looks like raceday 2011 is likely to be down a few teams from 2010, but here’s what we know kicking things off (from bad news to better news)
If you’re reading cmubuggy.org and you’ll be on campus on wednesday, you shouldn’t miss the world premier of “1 year for 2 minutes,” a student filmed and produced documentary about buggy.
The film is the result of a year-long SURG-funded effort by David Kinskey-Lebeda and Erin Gantz that explores the addictive craziness that is buggy with interviews and buggy footage. The main players on screen are largely CIA folks, but the questions they ask and answer are definitely relevant to the entire buggy world. We, the BAA committee were even interviewed at length, and haven’t seen how that turned out yet. Should be interesting.
PREMIERING
Wed, May 5th at 10am
UC McConomy Auditorium
EXTENDED Screening
Sat, May 8th at 8pm
Breed Hall (Margaret Morrison 103)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=121978317814884
Action in this year’s Lead Truck auction has been lively through the first 61 hours, but like they say on the back hills, we need to finish strong. The currently winning bidders have pledged $899 which is awesome, but we’ve got a ways to go to make the most of our $2,000 matching gift. Don’t let us leave money on the table that could go towards making buggy more fun and exciting for alumni and current students.
There are still plenty of affordable heats, and some high profile heats that aren’t as high yet as they were last year. Remember, every dollar you put it in is worth $2 to the BAA! A summary of the current winning bids for your convenience:
Women’s Prelims
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Women’s Finals
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Men’s Prelims
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Men’s Finals
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Hey SDC, Spirit, and SigEp alumni, you’re not going to let your A team heats go for less than $15 are you? That’s right, I’m calling you out, support your teams, they’re going to think you don’t care about them!
Update: There was interest in lead truck rides during the exhibition heats (especially the PiKA – Beta – SN showdown), so we have added those to the auction. Click here to see the current bidding.
55 teams will contest this year’s men’s and women’s races, up 5 from last year. That’s what we like to see. Mission #3 of the buggy alumni association coming up spades. Even though we’re up 5 teams, there will be only 19 heats which is 6 fewer than last year. The trick is that since hill 1 was repaved this summer, buggy can once again use all three lanes and set up some action-packed heats.
Now that the heats are settled and it is 9am Friday morning, the auction is open for bids! Head right on over to
and get in on the action. Remember …
and the heats are:
Update: There were few last minute changes to the heats which are now marked in orange …
Sweepstakes has officially decided, and DTD has confirmed, that 2010 is not going to be the year they break back onto the raceday scene. DTD made its first appearance on the buggy course in recent history in October and got off to a good start. They had their share of incidents, but in the fall that’s just part of being new. Problem was that the incidents kept piling up regularly into the spring and it didn’t seem like they had a reasonable chance of making it around the course on raceday.
One of the BAA’s stated goals is to encourage greater participation in the sport, so we’re interested in their experience and how we can help teams like them in the future. We got in contact with DTD’s co-buggy-chair, Ian McIntyre, and asked a few questions: Continue reading
It’s that time of year when everyone has things to announce, and thanks to all yinz, cmubuggy.org is one of the best places to do it. Sweepstakes and Alumni Relations both have our back when we’re trying to get things done, so we’re happy to spread the good word from them:
Murrysville Golf Club, Murrysville, PA
Sunday, April 18
Join alumni for the Spring Carnival Alumni Golf Outing. Breakfast, a snack at the turn, cart, 18 holes of golf and a closing lunch are included. Shuttle service is available and will leave from the University Center Circle at 8 am. Registration on-site and breakfast begin at 8:30 am. Registration Required/Event Fee: $95 & due upon registration.
To register, please visit:
http://www.cmu.edu/alumni/involved/events/carnival/registration-golf/index.html
Sweepstakes has tshirts, buggy books, and those stainless steel water bottles that are all the rage.
The tshirt design and waterbottle designs are at left, click for a bigger version. T-shirts and water bottles are going for $10 each. Buy any two items for $18. That’s a $2 discount! Tshirts come in sides Youth Medium, Youth Large, and then Adult Small through Adult 2XL.
Buggy books are $5 to everyone other than active participants. The cover of the buggy book is a secret until raceday to build that suspenseful atmosphere. Don’t count on getting the buggy book PDF on cmubuggy for free, we’ll wait a year to post it so that we don’t undercut the way buggy book printing gets paid for.
Pre-order now to avoid the hustle and bustle on raceday by e-mailing sweepstakes chair Jess Thurston: jessicathurston532@gmail.com. Pickup would ideally be at design comp, but raceday pickups are possible, arrange by e-mail.
