It was a cold Saturday morning, with temps were hovering just around freezing and overcast skies hid the sun. Road conditions have not improved as the freeze-thaw cycle of a typical Pittsburgh winter continues to chew up the concrete around Flagstaff Hill. Sweepstakes appeared to resort to drying the course with a roll of paper towels prior to rolls.

Teams seemed to be scared away by the low temperatures and attendance on Sunday with only PiKA, SDC, Fringe, CIA, Spirit and Robobuggy turning up to roll. In addition all the teams were generally sticking with 1 – 2 buggies per roll. With all those factors we completed a whopping 8 full roll-orders.

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It was another beautiful winter-turning-to-spring weekend last week in Pittsburgh. Temperatures creeped to just above freezing to reach an almost comfortable 33F. Unfortunately, Sunday Rolls were cancelled due to wet forecasts. It did rain between Saturday and Sunday, but high winds ended up being the real danger on Sunday.

With Raceday just 6 weeks of questionable weather patterns away, teams are beginning to take a serious look at their Hill 2 push offs. Unfortunately, the pot holes along the hill make it exceedingly difficult to get much definitive information. Perhaps next year we can introduce a new sport: Buggy Slalom Races.

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Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year we’ve been waiting for since that time last year: spring rolls are here! Sort of.

Wintry weather on Saturday had Buggies in hibernation for one extra day this past weekend. By Sunday the temperatures had warmed just enough to coax 6 teams out to the course. The first roll was in a chilly 21F, but by the end of practices it was a balmy 24F. Our on-scene reporter relayed that it was “quite chilly if you didn’t have a wind breaker.” So, take that as you will.

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This weekend saw some wet weather and Mini-Raceday! Rain and unsafe road conditions thwarted Saturday Rolls, but the demon Pittsburgh weather gods smiled on the undergrads, gracing the course with a balmy 35F and dry conditions for Sunday morning.

Sunday started with a long delay, as Sweepstakes became aware just after chairmen’s meeting that the entire second row of hay bales were missing from the inner Chute. The organization assigned to this chore had put out only one row. The delay lasted until approximately 7:18 with Sweepstakes and other organizations proving additional hands to get bales in place. Despite these delays we made it through the roll-order five times nearly without any incidents.

For Mini-raceday, Sweepstakes was timing the first Buggy of every org, timing from the crosswalk, Hill 3 line, and finish line. We don’t have the official times from Sweepstakes, but we can say that Fringe had two of the three fastest times of the day and was rolling slightly faster than SDC, CIA, and Spirit. From SDC, Malice was the only Buggy rolling fast, but none of those out had times resembling Raceday speeds. Spirit was by far the most consistent team rolling, with each of the Buggies moving at fair clips. CIA might have put up fast times all around if they were racing Equinox and Emperor up Hill 1. The proximity prevented the trailing Buggy from driving her course. All-in-all the teams performed how we might expect. We’ll be looking to Fringe, SDC, Spirit, and CIA this spring to starting tearing up the course.

Unrelated: Best pusher nickname of the morning: “Daddy Long Legs”

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No, you’re not reading the post title wrong, there were indeed 2 days of Buggy this week. Teams graced the course both Saturday and Sunday getting in some chilly practice before ice and snow descend upon the ‘Burgh. Whether it was due to uncomfortable wind chills (< 28 F) or internal reasons, only 5 teams, including Robobuggy, made it out on Saturday. By 7:30am, the small number of Saturday teams couldn’t keep up with the designated roll order and organized chaos replaced the roster. While the temperature still sat below freezing on Sunday, the wind had died down and the course was dry.

One of the more entertaining events of Saturday (from a spectator’s view) was Sweepstakes trying to remove 2 patches of ice from the Chute. After kicking and scraping at the ice failed, they turned to leaf blowers. Unfortunately, leaf blowers only pump out slightly-warmer-than-ambient air. They were eventually able to defeat the ice using a combination of hand warmers and hot packs. The effort was well-worth it as we saw no accidents in the Chute. The Saturday breeze was strong and regular enough to shove the barricades onto the course at both ends of Schenley drive (Hill 2 and Chute turn)

To give an idea of the chill in the air, one reporter overheard a pusher grumbling “I think my earrings are frozen to my ear.”

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And we’re back! Due to some unfortunate weather patterns, absentee alumni, missing permits, and Halloween, Buggy reports have been on hiatus for the better part of the last month. Despite the ever dropping temperatures, Buggies finally found their way back to the course and we had a full weekend day of rolls!

Saturday practice was cancelled, but not for lack trying on Sweepstakes end. The call didn’t come until 1am when it was clear that the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. The dreary weather failed to dampen the teams’ spirits and spectators were treated to some mechanics and pushers dressing up in the spirit of Halloween. The wet weekend was a ghoulish nightmare for the sweepers, who had to put in some extra elbow grease to remove soggy leaves from the Chute. This caused a slight delay in the start time.

I have a note here from our reporter on the scene that the quote of the day was: “Only the Friwizard can wear the hat!” Not sure what that means, and sadly we don’t have a picture to go with the quote. 

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Apologies for the delay in reporting, folks. The usual writers for the weekly Rolls Report all became terribly distracted with our real jobs…

Due to lacking permits, Buggies were only rolling this past Sunday, but the teams just packed a full weekend of enthusiasm into one day. Pittsburgh’s weather was still functioning on its own calendar and by 6am it was a balmy 74F. Though, the warm temperatures allowed some teams to pick up some decent speed and impressive roll outs for this early in the season.

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Aaaannnnnnnnnd we’re back, Buggy Time!

Conditions around the course this Sunday morning were mostly good; warm for rolls and the roadway remained in much the same condition that it was during Raceday. However, the inclusions of construction around the Posner building displaced CIA to the bottom of Hill one. In addition, three dumpsters on the back hills required some extra bales to be distributed and the pushers to be more awake than usual. Well, just awake anyway.

Police were not secured for the outer barricades this weekend causing all teams to contribute additional personnel to stand guard around the course.

Our new Sweepstakes chairpeople for this year have developed a rotating system of overseeing Rolls. The new chairman, Hunter Rideout, was absent this weekend, but some familiar faces were present: Elyce Milligan, last year’s Assistant Chairman, has returned as Safety Chair, at least for the Fall Semester. Joyce Chen, the SDC chair RD18, has taken the mantle of Assistant Chairman for Sweepstakes. Jasio Santillan is back running things, but we aren’t quite sure of his official position. All of them grooming are “Bonnie” for the safety chair role she will fill in the spring semester. It’s all a little unconventional, but given the breadth and depth of knowledge at the top of the hill, we predict smooth rolling.

The first Roll was scheduled for 7:00am, so the 7:10 start due to some frantic last-minute Chute sweeping was not bad at all. The delay also gave Atlas a chance to sneak in an early Roll. We started the Roll order with 9 teams present, missing only SigNu and SAE from the predicted list. Hopefully we’ll be seeing those teams later in the semester.

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Holy Smokes, Carnival is just days away! It is hard to believe given that we’ve gone from freezing temperatures, to wearing shorts and t-shirts, and back to snow in 2 weeks’ time. Raceday 2018 is upon us, which means this past weekend was the formal buggy dress rehearsal, complete with U-Hauls.

After Heat Selection, it is now confirmed that 25 women’s teams will roll in 10 heats and 27 men’s teams will roll in 12 heats. A complete listing of the heats can be found here.

As per usual, you won’t be getting the nitty gritty details of the last weekend of practice as we prepare to send out the much anticipated Raceday Preview. This year we have packed team summaries, photos, alumni interviews, predictions, and other buggy-goodness into the document. How do you get access to this amazing Work of Buggy? Simple: pay your BAA dues ($10)! BAA dues go a long way to helping us keep you up-to-date on the latest buggy news as well as provide critical support to the current students. Plus, you get the Raceday Preview; that alone is worth the $10. You can join the BAA or renew your membership here.

We wouldn’t hold back everything from you though. Below you will find timing data from Saturday. We have both trap speeds (taken at the monument) and percent speed lost through the chute. We’ll let you pore over the numbers, and you might find one or two unexpected data points.

In Attendance

Org	Saturday	Sunday
Apex	Firefly, Phoenix, Ember, BakedPotato	Phoenix, Ember, BakedPotato
CIA	Emperor, Impulse, Equinox, Tempest	Emperor, Impulse, Equinox, Tempest
Fringe	Boson, Blueshift, Bissa, Bolt, Bumper	Boson, Blueshift, Bolt, Bumper
PhiDelt	Argo	Argo
PiKA	Cliodhna, Banshee	Cliodhna, Banshee
SAE	NB2018	NB2018
SDC	Inferno, Malice, Vice, Avarice	Inferno, Malice, Vice, Avarice
SigEp	Kraken, Barracuda, Beyonce, Hydra	Kraken, Barracuda, Beyonce, Hydra
SigNu	Krait
Spirit	Zuke, Kingpin, Seraph, Inviscid	Zuke, Kingpin, Seraph, Inviscid

Observations (Saturday Gallery | Sunday Gallery)

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With Carnival only one week away, we are still looking for volunteers to help make things run smoothly during Races. If you are going to be at prelims and finals, consider donating a little time to making Raceday great! You can sign up here.

Pittsburgh’s weather didn’t get the memo about how close Carnival is and how desperately teams need Rolls, and it decided to snow on Friday night. Teams awoke to a film of icy snow covering the roads and Sweepstakes was forced to cancel. Fortunately, the precipitation held off the following evening and the course was clear, but cold, for Sunday. RoboBuggy didn’t seem to mind the chill in the air and rolled throughout the day with the rest of the teams. The first human Roll was delayed until 7:30 in hopes that the sun might raise the temperature a bit. It reached a balmy 28F.

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