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.
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.
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.