Rolls Report October 5 & 6: Finally Fall

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

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexFirefly, Solaris, ScorchFirefly, Scorch
CIARoadrunner, Emperor, GoldfinchRoadrunner, Kingfisher, Goldfinch
DGInsite
FringeBumper, BlackbirdBaltic, Blackbird, Burnout
SDCVice, Inferno, Vanity, AvariceVice, Avarice, Vanity, Bane
SigEpKraken, Hydra
SpiritInviscid, Zuke, SeraphInviscid, Zuke, Seraph

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) / Sunday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: September 21 & 22

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!

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexFirefly, ScorchSolaris
AtlasMonacoMonaco
CIAEmperor, Roadrunner, KingfisherEmperor, Goldfinch, Kingfisher
FringeBlackbird, BurnoutBurnout, Bumper
RobobuggyShort Circuit, NAND
SDCVice, Inferno, Avarice, LustInferno, Vice, Avarice
SigEpHydra
SpiritZuke, InviscidZuke

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) / Sunday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: September 14 & 15 – Welcome Back!

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

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexFirefly, Solaris
CIAEmperor, Goldfinch, RoadrunnerEmperor, Goldfinch, Roadrunner
FringeBlackbird, BurnoutBlackbird, Baltic
SDCLust, BaneLust, Inferno
SpiritZuke, SeraphZuke, Seraph, Inviscid
RobobuggyShort CircuitShort Circuit

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) / Sunday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: April 6 & 7 – Truck Weekend

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!

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexFirefly, Scorch, SolarisFirefly, Phoenix, Scorch, Solaris
Atlas—-Monaco
CIAEquinox, Goldfinch, Kingfisher, RoadrunnerEmperor, Equinox, Goldfinch, Kingfisher
DGInsiteInsite
FringeBaltic, Blueshift, Brimstone, NB2024Baltic, Blueshift, Burnout, NB2024
PiKABanshee, RaptorBanshee, Raptor
RobobuggyNAND, Short CircuitNAND, Short Circuit
SAEBarbieBarbie
SDCBane, ViceBane, Vice
SigEpHydra, KrakenHydra, Kraken
SigNuBungarus Krait, JaegerBungarus Krait, Jaeger
SpiritInviscid, Kingpin, Mapambazuko, SeraphKingpin, Mapambazuko, Seraph
1 Driver Qualified, 2 Drivers Qualified, 2024 Build

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload); Sunday Gallery (upload)

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
  • OverallMost 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
  • OverallTotal Number of Rookie Drivers with at least 1 completed Roll: 22
  • OverallTotal 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
  • FallMost 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
  • SpringMost 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)

Rolls Report: March 30 & 31 – Double The Pleasure, Double The Fun

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.

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexPhoenix, ScorchPhoenix, Solaris
Atlas—-Monaco
CIAEquinox, Goldfinch, Kingfisher, RoadrunnerEmperor, Kingfisher, Roadrunner
FringeBlueshift, Bumper, Burnout, NB2024Baltic, Blueshift, Brimstone, NB2024
PiKABanshee, RaptorBanshee, Raptor
RobobuggyShort CircuitNAND, Short Circuit
SAEBarbie—-
SDCBane, ViceBane, Vice
SigEpHydra, KrakenHydra
SigNuBungarus Krait, Jaeger—-
SpiritInviscid, Kingpin, Mapambazuko, SeraphKingpin, Mapambazuko, Seraph
Pass Test Needed, <3 Rolls Needed, 1+ Drivers Qualified, 2024 Build

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload); Sunday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: March 24 – A Full Day of Rolls

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.

The warmest person on the Buggy course

OrgSunday
AEPiKamikaze*
ApexFirefly, Scorch, Solaris
CIAEmperor, Equinox, Goldfinch, Kingfisher, Roadrunner
DGInsite
FringeBaltic, Brimstone, Burnout
PiKARaptor
RobobuggyNAND, Short Circuit
SAE (formerly Frontier)Barbie
SDCBane, Vice
SigEpHydra
SigNuBungarus Krait, Jaeger
SpiritKingpin, Mapambazuko, Seraph
Pass Test Needed, <2 Rolls Needed, 1+ Drivers Qualified, 2024 Build

Photos: Sunday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: March 16 – Spring Has Sprung

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!

OrgSunday
ApexFirefly, Phoenix
CIAEmperor, Goldfinch, Kingfisher
DGInsite
FringeBaltic, Blueshift, NB2024
PiKAN/A
RobobuggyNAND, Short Circuit
SDCAvarice, Inferno, Vice
SigEpHydra, Kraken
SigNuJaeger
SpiritInviscid, Kingpin, Mapambazuko, Seraph
Pass Test Needed, <2 Rolls Needed, 1+ Drivers Qualified, 2024 Build

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: February 24 – There Must Be Some Buggies in the Atmosphere

With the last weekend before Spring Break, mother nature decided to play a cruel trick on teams. Sunday rolls were cancelled early in the week due to expected temperatures in the low 20s, but teams decided to brave the upper 20s on Saturday to get some practice in. Unfortunately, teams couldn’t get as many trips through the roll order as they probably hoped. Scratches, stops, and snow led to a short, cold day of rolls for 8 racing orgs (and 1 robot).

It was a “proper pushing attire is a winter coat” kind of morning.

OrgSunday
DGInsite
FringeBlueshift, Brimstone
FrontierBarbie
PiKARaptor
RobobuggyShort Circuit
SDCAvarice, Bane, Vice
SigEpHydra
SigNuBungarus Krait
SpiritInviscid, Kingpin, Mapambazuko, Seraph
Pass Test Needed, 1+ Drivers Qualified

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: February 11 – Super Buggy Sunday

Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow last week, which can only mean one thing – Buggy is back! While you were preparing to watch the Chiefs battle the 49ers, or Usher’s Halftime Show, or Super Bowl Commercials, or Taylor Swift, buggy organizations were waking up early and ringing in the Spring semester with some Rolls! The plan was for 2 days, but a last-minute rainstorm on Saturday morning caused Rolls to be cancelled.  But things cleared up for Sunday, allowing for 7 organizations to come out and get well on their way to qualification for Raceday 2024.

No shadows and a bunch of flags means that Buggy is back!

OrgSunday
ApexFirefly, Scorch, Solaris
CIAEmperor, Kingfisher
FringeBaltic, Blueshift, Burnout
RobobuggyShort Circuit
SDCVice
SigEpHydra, Kraken
SpiritMapambazuko, Seraph

Photos: Sunday Gallery (upload)

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Rolls Report: November 11 & 12 – Homecoming

This weekend was Homecoming at CMU. Alumni who were back on campus got to see the CMU football team take home the 37th annual Academic Bowl, taste the various chilis at the 20th Annual CMU Chili Cook-Off, and attend the official grand opening of the new Scaife Hall. But most importantly, they were able to fill up on donuts and coffee courtesy of the BAA at Rolls! It was a full weekend of Rolls, with 7 orgs out each day and a lot of time to roll, leading to over 120 individual rolls across the 9 total organizations. It wasn’t without hiccups though, as the near-freezing temperatures saw a couple of buggy parts littering the course and one – well, two – very close calls with a bicyclist.

The one buggy we could ALL probably fit (well, other than Limo)

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexMolotov, Scorch——
CIAEmperor, Equinox, RoadrunnerEquinox, Roadrunner
DG——Insite
FringeBaltic, Brimstone, BurnoutBlueshift
PiKABanshee, RaptorRaptor
SDCViceVanity
SigEpHydra——
SigNu——Jaeger
SpiritMapambazuko, SeraphMapambazuko, Seraph

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) | Sunday Gallery (upload)

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