Welcome back to Buggy for this Raceday 2013 season!
For those of you that don’t already know, Sam Swift has moved on from Pittsburgh and with that has passed along the reins of the Rolls Reports to current Pittsburghers. In particular I (Ben Matzke) have taken over the organization of getting these out to you every week. Since I feel I don’t have (or yet have) the same dedication/time that Sam had, I’ll be asking for collaboration from any alumni or current students that attended rolls each weekend. If you are in the Pittsburgh area and attend rolls on any given weekend, please send any interesting notes, funny stories or overheard rumors to me. With that out of the way, lets get into what you’re really here for.
Rolls were slated to start on Saturday, but ran into issues with the new parking meters and their lack of NO PARKING signs. Many buggy fans were disappointed to have a similar start 2 years in a row. Because of this, the Police made some of their temporary signs and taped them to the meters for Sunday.
Sweepstakes (I assume it was them) also made some nice giant signs to help alert people of the weekend closures.These signs allowed Sweepstakes to get things running on Sunday and things ran well. Aside from the typical shenanigans that accompany the first day of rolls, everything ran incredibly smoothly and some drivers are already maxing their fall rolls. It was an exciting day for everyone and the surrounding wildlife, so lets get into some of the details.
In Attendance
Sweepstakes hasn’t posted their roll counts for the year yet, but this is what I remember. And with my memory suspect from those late nights of buggy building, there’s likely to be something wrong.
| Org | Sunday |
|---|---|
| AEPi | Kamikaze |
| CIA | Ascension, Freyja, Firebird, Quasar |
| Fringe | Bonsai, Borealis, Bedlam, Banyan |
| SDC | Bane, Avarice, Malice, Rage |
| SigEp | Peregrine, Barracuda, Pandora |
| Spirit | Zuke, Seraph, Fuko, Haraka |
| No-Shows | Apex, PiKA, SAE, SigNu |
Observations (Sunday Gallery) Continue reading
If you’re a member you should have found our legendary Members-only Raceday Preview in your inbox by now. Enjoy it. If you didn’t get a copy, you should know that it’s not too late. 
It may have been April 1st, but there’re no pranks here, rolls happened on Sunday, they were fun, and we’ve got the details for you. Saturday was rained out, but in one day we got more headline material than the last couple of weeks put together. One new buggy, one radical renovation, one new team on the course, one new animal-theme paint job, and a spin for good measure. Lots of alumni in the chute and following along with our live streaming broadcast was just icing on the cake.
After almost two full weeks of ridiculously beautiful weather while the kids took two weekends off for spring break, Pittsburgh slapped the reality back into us with a cool down and enough rain to cancel Saturday’s rolls. Sunday was still overcast but dry, and 8 of our teams made it out the morning after greek sing for four cycles through the order. I was out of town on Sunday, so big thanks to Zatch and Vincent who supplied the bulk of the narrative and all of the multimedia. Read on for the details of a Fringe buggy out of retirement, some new PiKA wheels, and a couple of chute mishaps, but no new buggies!
With precipitation on 7 of the last 10 days and temperatures swinging from the 20s to the 60s faster than you can add or remove layers, it’s hard to know what to expect, but buggy demonstrated some toughness and got in two solid days this weekend. Saturday was pretty enjoyable with lots of sun and no wind making it more comfortable than the thermometers (or smartphones) were indicating. Sunday was less pleasant and teams seemed worn out from it. Snow came and went a few times during Sunday but never stuck to the ground enough to warrant Sweepstakes to cancel although Fringe, SDC, and PiKA (I think) all scratched for the day before 9.
When the alarm went off it was dark and it looked cold and I considered getting back in bed. What was I thinking?! Rolls are awesome, I just needed a reminder, and the first day of rolls did the job. Apex made it out, PiKA made it back out, CIA rolled the first new buggy of 2012, and 6 other teams came out to start the spring with a healthy crowd. Sunday was deemed too cold to roll (26 F, 8mph wind) so everyone had a short buggy weekend to get back into the groove.
Last rolls of the semester, temps close to 60, and plans to do another live broadcast from the chute … I was excited for rolls this Sunday. And then I woke up at 10:30. Oops. My sincere apologies to anyone who tried to watch the live stream. After working out the technical details last week, we uncovered and even larger weakness: the human factor. For what it’s worth, I paid my penance with a solid hangover. Luckily Zack Waldman has my back so we’ve got a rolls report.
13 times through the order in one weekend is enough to wear out fresh, energetic teams in September. For the teams running a little lower than they’d like on manpower (almost all of them) here in mid-November, this weekend was a real endurance test. But the drivers got huge amounts of practice and for the most part everyone had their act together. We also had some fun producing content this weekend with black and white photography on Saturday and a live streaming broadcast from the chute on Sunday.
The end of daylight savings meant Saturday was a super short day while Sunday was nice and long, leaving time for a full mini-raceday-esque event. Weather was in the low 30s but nice and sunny which is better than we might expect for November. Zach Waldman and Ben Matzke covered the rolls report while I was out of town so thanks to them, and no thanks to me for taking this long to get it posted! Fantasy buggy times were collected on Sunday and the winner will be announced very soon.