Thanks again to those who joined us for Homecoming and Mini-Raceday last week. We hope all of you enjoyed reviewing some actual buggy data! This weekend had two smooth days of rolls with no buggy incidents. The most notable thing was a little rain Sunday, and the most notable thing about that was how notable it was (as Pittsburgh is in the midst of a drought)!
Credit to Guillermo Gomez for this Scorch action shot
Welcome to the 2024 Mini Raceday Rolls Report! Thanks to the preparation and very cooperative weather this year, the teams had built up some impressive speed this fall season.The weather was a little chilly but we still had some impressive rolls, read on to see!
This was an eventful weekend out on the buggy course! After two weeks off for Fall Break, the teams returned and wow- we had a lot going on. A team making its season debut, freshly painted Hill 1 lines, mechanical failures in the chute, Buggy Halloween costumes, and a rogue police car causing a very concerning incident on the course.
The Buggy teams returned to the course this past weekend after a week break. Temperatures cooled off, but the buggy teams were heating up with some full Hill 1s, another returning Greek team, and a few incidents that come with teams building speed and helping new drivers try out the course. All the hallmarks of an exciting weekend of rolls- read on for more!
SDC had the most buggies out this weekend- almost the full rainbow
The second weekend of rolls this year brought more good weather, more teams, and more animals and bikers in need of chasing off of the course! A mostly clean Saturday was followed by a Sunday with a few minor incidents to report as the teams bring on new drivers and/or added some speed from last week. All the details below!
Apex and Spirit at the bottom of Hill 1 on another beautiful day of rolls!
Buggy is back for another year: welcome to the 2024-2025 season! A new rolls reporter is on the case this year- and I first want to thank Bryan Arsham for compiling these reports from California last year!
This weekend featured great weather, very few incidents, and even one new buggy! As we start this year, a quick reminder: these reports don’t happen without many people helping out- more details on how YOU can help at the end of the post! Now let’s get to the teams:
Spirit ready at Hill 2 for the first roll of the season, with the new Highmark Center in the background
Mother nature sent snow, flooding, freezing temperatures, and even an earthquake leading up to the weekend, but not even those could keep teams off the course for Truck Weekend. And what a weekend it was! Teams combined for 85 rolls on Saturday, and another 108(!) on Sunday. Even better, everyone qualified for Raceday! Because we’re busy getting ready for Raceday later this week, we don’t have a full Rolls Report for you here. But we did have volunteer timers on the course on both Saturday and Sunday, so if you want to see that data, as well as our Raceday predictions and other recap of the year and preview of the races, make sure that you’re a member so that you get our Raceday Preview.
But as this is the last Rolls Report of the year, I just wanted to give one last shout-out to everyone who helped out with these reports this year. You may be surprised to learn that I haven’t attended a single Rolls all year (it’s tough to attend when you live in California). So I mean this literally when I say that these Rolls Reports would not be possible without the help of all the alumni and students who provided information and photos this year. In particular, I want to thank alumni Rob Siemborski, Matt Gallabrese, Connor Hayes, Dan Becerra, Molly Browning, E. Forney, Meg Richards, Declan Kelly, Ben Matzke, Frank Li, and Sabrina Wang for their notes and photos throughout the year, and Rob, Matt, Connor, Molly, Guillermo Gomez, James Wong, Raymond Galeza, Ryan Davis, Natalie McGuier, and Shafeeq Sinnamohideen for their help timing buggies this weekend. I also want to give an extra special shout-out to the current students who took time on the weekends to send me updates, both from their teams as well as for Rolls generally – They not only ensured that everything was accurate (at least for their teams), but also provided a perspective that added way more depth to these Rolls Reports than we would have otherwise had. So thank you SO MUCH to Su Mae and Kaylie (PiKA), Lewis (SDC), Tiegan (Apex), Julia (CIA), and Delaynie (Robobuggy…and probably a bunch of other orgs too). My hope is that in future years, we get even more teams to fill us in with how they did each week, as we love to pass that information along to students and alumni who can’t make it to Rolls.
Our alumni volunteers were out in force this weekend to help with timing.
In the meantime, below is the chart for this weekend’s Rolls, as well as the links to both galleries. And now that Raceday is here, make sure you’re checking cmubuggy.org frequently, as you’ll be able to find all of our announcements, a schedule of events, links to the broadcasts, etc. here. If you’re a member, keep your eyes out for our Raceday Preview, coming out this week (with Truck Weekend details). We’ve also got our Lead Truck Auction starting soon. Plus, if you want to get yourself in the mood for Raceday, spend this week listening to Season 5 of Chute The Sh!t, as there are some great episodes (including wild tales from the 70s and 90s, a look at the origins of the cmuTV broadcast, and more modern takes with both the current SDC leadership and Sweepstakes Advisor Stacie Gardner). And lastly, if you are interested in being our Rolls Reporter next year, please reach out to us via Email, Discord, or even in person at Carnival!
Rolls Awards. Since it’s the last Rolls Report of the year, I figured I’d take this opportunity to give out a couple of “Rolls Report Awards”, honoring the best of the best this year.
Overall – Most Rolls: TIE – Elizabeth (SDC) and Amber (CIA) – 69 rolls
First Runner Up: Nanz (Spirit) – 65 rolls
Second Runner Up: Kaylan (CIA) – 58 rolls
Overall – Most Rolls in a Single Buggy: Amber (CIA) – 69 rolls in Roadrunner
First Runner Up: Nanz (Spirit) – 65 rolls in Zuke
Second Runner Up: Natalie (Spirit) – 57 rolls in Seraph
Overall – Most Rolls (Veteran Driver Division): Natalie (Spirit) – 57 rolls in Seraph
First Runner Up: Lucy (CIA) – 55 rolls, with 20 in Goldfinch, 18 in Kingfisher, and 17 in Emperor
Second Runner Up: Jazz (CIA) – 49 rolls in Equinox
Overall – Most Drivers in a Single Buggy: PiKA, with 4 drivers in Raptor
First Runner Up: CIA, with 3 drivers in Kingfisher
Overall – Total Number of Rookie Drivers with at least 1 completed Roll: 22
Overall – Total Number of Qualified Rookie/Veteran Drivers: 17 Rookie Drivers, 12 Veteran Drivers
Fall – Most Rolls: Amber (CIA) – 50 rolls in Roadrunner
First Runner Up: Kaylan (CIA) – 41 rolls, with 25 in Emperor and 16 in Equinox
Second Runner Up: Elizabeth (SDC) – 38 rolls, with 26 in Avarice and 12 in Vice
Fall – Most Rolls (Veteran Driver Division): Natalie (Spirit) – 36 rolls in Seraph
First Runner Up: Jazz (CIA) – 33 rolls in Equinox
Second Runner Up: Lucy (CIA) – 30 rolls, with 18 in Kingfisher and 12 in Emperor
Fall – Most Rolls in a Single Buggy: Amber (CIA) – 50 rolls in Roadrunner
First Runner Up: Natalie (Spirit) – 36 rolls in Seraph
Second Runner Up: Nanz (Spirit) – 35 rolls in Zuke
Fall – Most Rolls in a Single Day (Buggy/Driver): TIE – Most of CIA with 9
Lucy – 9 in Kingfisher on 9/16/23, 9 in Emperor on 11/11/23
Jazz – 9 in Equinox on 9/16/23
Amber – 9 in Roadrunner on 11/11/23
Kaylan – 9 in Equinox on 11/11/23
Fall – Most Rolls in a Single Day (Org): CIA – 29 rolls on 9/16/23
Fall – Most Drivers in a Single Day (Org): Fringe – 5 drivers (across 4 buggies) on 11/4/23
Fall – Most Days Attended (Org): TIE – 10 (CIA, Fringe, and Spirit)
Spring- Most Rolls: TIE – Audrey (CIA) and Elizabeth (SDC) – 31 rolls
First Runner Up: Nanz (Spirit) – 30 rolls
Second Runner Up: Ivania (Spirit) – 27 rolls
Spring – Most Rolls in a Single Buggy: Audrey (CIA) – 31 rolls in Kingfisher
Co-First Runner Up: Elizabeth (SDC) – 30 rolls in Vice
Co-First Runner Up: Nanz (Spirit) – 30 rolls in Zuke
Spring – Most Rolls (Veteran Driver Division): Audrey (CIA) – 31 rolls in Kingfisher
First Runner Up: Lucy (CIA) – 25 rolls, with 20 in Goldfinch and 5 in Emperor
Second Runner Up: Natalie (Spirit) – 21 rolls in Seraph
Spring – Most Rolls in a Single Day (Buggy/Driver): TIE – CIA Drivers (Audrey in Kingfisher, Kaylan in Emperor, Amber in Roadrunner) with 7 on 3/31/24
Co-First Runner Up: Spirit Drivers (Nanz in Zuke, Natalie in Seraph) with 6 on 2/11/24
Co-First Runner Up: Lucy (CIA) with 6 on 3/30/24
Co-First Runner Up: SDC Drivers (Ezrin, Elizabeth) with 6 on 3/31/24
Co-First Runner Up: Lizzie (SigEp) with 6 on 4/6/24 and 4/7/24
Spring – Most Rolls in a Single Day (Org): CIA – 21 rolls on 3/31/24
Spring – Most Drivers in a Single Day (Org): TIE – 5 (Spirit in 2/24/24, CIA on 3/24/24)
Spring – Most Days Attended(Org): TIE – 9 (Fringe, SDC, SigEp, Spirit)
For our last full Rolls Report of the year (if you want the full Truck Weekend report next week, make sure that you’re a member so that you get the Raceday Preview), we’re pleased to report that we finally got a full weekend of Rolls in! The threat of weather was looming all weekend, and rain on Saturday afternoon and evening did leave the roads a little damp on Sunday morning. But for the first time this Spring, orgs rolled on both Saturday and Sunday. And not only did they roll both days, but they were incredibly efficient. In fact, the 10 human-driven organizations that came out this weekend combined for 163 total rolls across the weekend. And while there were a couple of issues, for the most part teams put themselves in great position for full speed ahead on Raceday.
Rolls were so busy this weekend that even Flat Stanley was trying to get qualified.
With less than 3 weeks to go until Raceday, teams were full steam ahead this weekend trying to get everything up to speed. This meant that, for the first time all year, every single team was on the course on Sunday. Of course, 2 days would have been even better, but the Pittsburgh weather gods decided that’s not allowed this Spring, and brought rain on Saturday morning. Sunday was clear and nice…except that the temperature was in the mid-20s. But that didn’t scare off the 12 orgs and 24 drivers from getting in as many rolls as they could on Sunday. And for the most part, things went pretty smoothly.
Spring break has come and gone, and with students back on campus, this weekend brought Buggy back to CMU! After a few weeks off for weather and Spring Break, this weekend brought warmer weather on Saturday…and then a rain storm early Sunday morning that caused Rolls to be cancelled (only to be filled with sunshine throughout the rest of the day). But it wasn’t just the buggies that had been rolling before Spring Break that were out. We saw a few brand new buggies make their debuts, as well as a couple of older buggies making their return to the course for the first time this year.
This picture-filled Rolls Report is brought to you by…the fact that no one uploaded photos to our gallery. Please upload them if you have them!
Spirit race on Hill 5
