Some of the more astute observers out there may have noticed that after last week’s coverage of 1988, there is only one more men’s course record to recount, yet we have two more weeks to fill in our countdown to raceday.  Some might say we miscounted the weeks when we started and now we’re covering to make it look planned.  The more diplomatic buggy fans out there would recognize that during the 20 year break in men’s records, buggy fans witnessed 5 new women’s records, and that deserves some recognition.

In fact, in the 30 years that women’s races have been held, 14 of the champions have won with a new course record.  Compared to the men’s historical probability of breaking the record 30% of the time, you’re 50% more likely to see history made in the women’s races.

2004 was one such record breaking year for the women, with PiKA posting the first ever sub 2:30 time on the women’s leader board.  PiKA’s women had an undeniable advantage on the uphills posting times on 1 and 4 that many of the men’s teams wouldn’t have wanted to compare themselves to.  In the end, their strength was evident as their margin of victory was exactly 10 seconds over a suprising effort from Beta’s women who placed 2nd.

2004 also put Abbie Bednar into a pretty exclusive club of being a driver who won both the men’s and women’s races in the same year.  The feat is so rare because it requires one org to sweep the races, but also because most orgs run different buggies for their Men’s and Women’s A teams.  In 2004 however, PiKA’s men’s A spun on day 1, and they moved their A team pushers to B team (driven by Abbie) to successfully salvage an unlikely Men’s win when Fringe missed the pushbar on hill 5.  I couldn’t find any other record of a driver winning both races in the same year, if you know of one, let us know.

Buggy Book 2004

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We resume our coverage of the last 5 record breaking years with 1988. The CD of all the buggy book scans got a big boost this week courtesy of Tom Wood who provided scans of the entire 70s decade. You’re going to want one of these when they’re available on raceday

1988 was not just a record setting year.  It was the year that left a record that hung tauntingly over buggy for 20 years.  Day 1 set the standard high with DU breaking the record with a time of 2:08.5 with their two wheeled buggy King Eider.  DU’s high risk / high reward strategy backfired on day 2 when King Eider “toppled” the crest of hill 2, never to roll again.

Spirit was the defending champion having completed their ambitious 3 year plan to “race, place, and win” in 1987, but some asserted that the victory was due only to a rained-out day 2. They denied they had anything to prove on their buggy book page, but the pressure to validate their surprising ’87 win must have worked wonders on the push team. Spirit seized the opportunity and took nearly 2.5 seconds off of the 1986 record, setting the time that seared into many a mind over the 20 years that followed: 2:06.2.  Many people assume that such a lasting record was set on a warm, dry day, the type that is favorable to both pushers and buggies.  In fact, the records show that the temperature at 11am on April 16th, 1988 was 32 degrees F and the weather was listed as light snow.

Buggy Book 1988

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The design competition chair, Melissa Lee sent an e-mail to the chairman’s list today listing the buggies that had been entered into design comp.  The extremely short list is:

• Fringe- New Buggy, Bristol
• KDR-Polaris
• SigEp-Barracuda
• CIA- Firebird
• SAE- Rubicon, Limo

As a fan of the idea of design comp, this bothers me.  Continue reading →

We resume our coverage of the last 5 record breaking years with 1986.  The CD of all the buggy book scans is coming along nicely, and will be available on raceday.

1986 was a record setting year, but history was made on a number of fronts.  On day 1, ATO had a fire in their truck that came frighteningly close to a serious catastrophe that could have threatened the future of buggy.  The incident prompted school administration including Anne Witchner to convene a committee of alumni to create a new body of rules to protect the participants.  This work most likely saved buggy and provides the base of rules that still govern the sport.

After a dropping pushbar failure on hill 1 of their finals heat in 1985 took them out of contention, PiKA came back strong in ’86 to set the record at 2:08.67.

The PiKA win was historic and their 4th of the decade, but a newcomer would factor heavily into it also being their last until the 90’s.  Spirit entered the race for the first time and finished 4th in men’s and winning women’s- immediately catching the attention of those in the know and foreshadowing the beginning of a new power structure in buggy.

Buggy Book 1986

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The buggy alumni association’s coverage of the last 5 men’s course-record-breaking years continues this week with 1983.  Remember, these buggy books are just a sample of the exhaustive collection we are compiling for distribution on a CD available on raceday.

The year was 1983, and CIA’s 1981 course record of 2:10.50 was still the time to beat.  PiKA rose to that challenge and set the bar at 2:09 flat on a re-roll after an earlier collision with Beta.  Legend has it that PiKA’s hill 3 pusher was in the bathroom in Porter hall until the last minute when he ran out and helped brake the record by 1.5 seconds.  The new record marked the arrival at what would become a 25 year plateau in the 2:09 neighborhood.  In fact, the average winning time from 1983-2007 was 2:09.1.

Buggy Book 1983

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Today marks six weeks from Design Comp 2009, and that’s right about when the weather starts to hint at getting nicer and that buggy itch starts to really get to you. So to help everyone in the buggy world get through these long weeks, we’re going to take you on a tour of racedays past.

Each Thursday from now until Design Comp, we’ll post the buggy book from one of the last 5 men’s course-record-breaking years. On Raceday, the Buggy Alumni Association will be distributing DVDs with high quality PDFs of every buggy book ever printed for a modest fund-raising price yet to be determined.

Without further ado, we bring you
Buggy Book 1981

In 1981, Carnival weekend was completely rained out, and the races were finally held on the Sunday after Carnival. CIA’s track athletes powered the sleek, four-wheeled Black Magic to victory, smashing the record by nearly 5 seconds with a time of 2:10.50, and earning the first win by an independent. The Zoo came in second with a 2:14.2, and PiKA A spun out, leaving their B team to third with a 2:18.5.

Comments and conversation about buggy books or 1981 in general in the forum

Sweepstakes is gearing up for another try at the first weekend of rolls, last week’s being thwarted by colder than desired temperatures.  So far, things aren’t looking too optimistic.  Last week, the 7am temperatures were 27 and 24 F which was cold enough to cancel things.  This weekend the 7am forecasts are 20 and 20 F.  Don’t worry, there is still plenty of time to improve on last year’s record-settingly late first day of rolls, March 23rd.

Update : Rolls are officially canceled for Saturday Feb 20th.  Too cold!
Update : Rolls are officially canceled for Sunday Feb 21st.  Too cold and snowy.

On the bright side, getting started a bit later probably gives teams more uninterrupted time to finish working on the new class of 2009 buggies.  So while we bide our time, lets think about what we’re likely to see on the course this year (in order of finishes in last year’s men’s races). Continue reading →

Alex Keene was kind enough to share some of the footage SDC has been collecting from their on-board camera in the last couple of weeks.  I’ve never seen video from this perspective, and I think it’s a really cool little thing to do during fall rolls.

(the action doesn’t start until 1:30 in the video)

Fall Rolls 2008 from seymour glass on Vimeo.

So once all us buggy folks appreciate the footage for it’s novelty, we’re left to ask, what is SDC collecting this footage for?

• pusher technique training?
• psych video material?
• pushbar rigidity measurements?
• pittsburgh filmmakers class project?
• flip video marketing?

No matter what the intention, thanks for sharing SDC.