With Saturday being sub 20 degrees, rolls were cancelled by Friday afternoon, but Sunday warmed right up and made for a surprisingly pleasant last day of rolls. Rolls were delayed early on due to wet roads and some teams were a little more hesitant than that and waited to see how everyone else did before giving it a go.

In Attendance 

Observations (Sunday) Continue reading →

Now that teams have some extra daylight savings time, they got a chance to square off against each other and compete in a slightly early Mini-Raceday. Sweepstakes managed to get timers out for all splits around the course and teams got to get a rough time for front hills, Freeroll, backhills, and overall (if they did all 3). Some teams seemed burned out by Mini-Raceday and Sunday quickly turned into a free-for-all of roll-arounds for the teams willing to put in the effort. Teams that rolled both days were rewarded with a relatively warm morning after a quite frigid Mini-Raceday.

I’m trying out a slightly different format for this week, comment below if you’d prefer to stick with the old one.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

Saturday was called off for all the Halloween shenanigans leaving teams only with the extra long, daylight-savings-adjusted Sunday. Despite there only being 6 teams out, they managed to rack up a full 90 rolls around the course. After a smooth start to the morning, things got more hectic as teams scratched for a break in the madness causing a cascade of scratching as teams weren’t ready for the quick turn around.

In Attendance 

Observations (Sunday) Continue reading →

After a few weeks of smooth, calm rolls, taking the midsemester weekend off seemed to undo all of that with several spins and  some scary crashes. On top of that a truck made it onto the course and an ambulance was called for the second time this year. Teams are moving faster and apparently drivers are still working on keeping their control through the chute in some cases, and in others drivers continue to race through or spin out while stopping for flags when they’re thrown. There are 4 potential weekends left for teams to make their move, but after a weekend like this, we are looking to see who returns and who might not.

EDIT: There has been some concern about inaccurate information regarding Spirit’s crash in this report and to that end we will making updates as more information makes it to us. If you have any information regarding the incident, please email news@cmubuggy.org so we can correct any inaccuracies. To this end, it is imperative that no one treat this incident lightly and we will not remove any information for the sake of making it seem less than it was.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

To all those alumni and parents that made it out this weekend, it was great to see you and I hope you were able to have a great time enjoying the Ceilidh festivities. We here at the BAA had an overall great time with only a couple setbacks at rolls. This was the first weekend where both days started with buggies rolling around the course even though one of them threatened to be wet. Saturday rolls not only saw Robobuggy continue to roll and gather data, but also got to see FSAE race around the course in both their gas and new electric race cars. Unfortunately, after only a couple buggies hit the course, an exhausted pusher took a scary tumble and was rushed to the hospital forcing rolls to be called short.

Those of us on campus Saturday afternoon had the great opportunity to witness Tom Wood’s fantastic and up to date “Evolution of Buggy Technology” presentation. In addition to the presentation itself, there was a great group of current students who stuck around after the talk to mingle with, answer questions for, and show off their buggies to the parents and alumni who were in attendance.

Before all the excitement over the weekend, CMU honored one of our own for the annual Alumni Awards. The very man who used to tell you all about what was going on each weekend, Sam Swift, was given the Alumni Service Award for his tireless efforts with the other founding members of the BAA to get this site up and running, and his continued work to keep the BAA strong and on message year after year. We owe a lot of thanks to his sleepless nights and we couldn’t be more proud of his achievement.

In Attendance  (Those who Rolled)

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

This weekend we had some wet roads on Saturday morning and enough teams called it off on their own that Sweepstakes called it off completely. Fortunately, the weather held up on Sunday and rolls went on mostly without a hitch. Teams are definitely speeding up and veteran drivers are closing in on their desired lines. The newly paved road might look awesome, but the newly painted lines might be causing more of an issue than we might have been expecting. Fortunately, The entrance to the chute is still very much fixed up, and there should hopefully be a lot less spinning and crashing compared to last year.

In Attendance 

Observations (Sunday) Continue reading →

It was another one day weekend for buggy this time because of the conflict with the Great Race that consumes most of the length of Forbes ave. Not to be deterred, teams made a fantastic showing on Saturday with a few surprises from some of them. Like the first weekend, everything rolled smoothly with only one major mishap early in the morning and even that is hard to call major.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday) Continue reading →

This weekend was the first rolls of the season and I unfortunately was out of town and missed the whole thing. Fortunately, Dan Marsh was around to pick up the ball and got me a bunch of notes from this weekend. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten any pictures from this weekend, so I’ll do my best to paint you a word picture.

Rolls didn’t have a chance of happening on Saturday since there were no permits. The morning was pretty chilly compared to what it could have been the day before, but of course it should only get colder the rest of the year. This was also the first time that teams had to deal with the new barriers around the bike lane, but more on that later. From some accounts, this was one of the smoothest first days of rolls ever seen.

In Attendance 

Observations (No Pictures) Continue reading →

As usual, this report is going to be a bit trimmed down from what’s been coming out so far this year. If you want to get the full report make sure you join up and become a member to get this year’s Raceday Preview. Due to some technical difficulties, the Preview is going to be a little delayed and should hopefully get out by tomorrow if not earlier, so you still have a chance to be first in line for all of the juicy details.

Truck weekend went surprisingly smoothly, thanks to some organizations cutting back on how many teams they will have on raceday. Several drivers managed to pickup their last few rolls and/or pass tests to qualify, but as usual, there are some stragglers who will probably be seeking forgiveness.

Qualified

Key: Qualified with at least one driver | Short on Rolls | Missing Pass Test

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery) Continue reading →

We’ve come to the last weekend before Truck. Heat selections are tonight, which means tomorrow the auction is planned to launch tomorrow! Once it’s up, be sure to share it with all the people who might be attending the races.

The orange cones make the chute look like a slalom course, but it looks like the line that most teams use is actually free of potholes. The potholes don’t leave much margin for error though, and the penalty for missing your line is big. The fastest buggies don’t have much margin for error anyway, so this shouldn’t be a big additional complication for their drivers. Chute passes are likely impossible without hitting something, though. Word on the street is that some of the potholes might be getting filled in, more on that later this week.

I unfortunately couldn’t make it to rolls on Saturday while working an event down at Cal U, but thankfully Shafeeq was able to take some notes, and Lou Conley managed to take pictures, so many thanks go out to them for filling in.

In Attendance 

Observations (Saturday Gallery) Continue reading →