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)
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.
This past Saturday saw the first day of Spring 2018 rolls! With only 6 short weeks until Raceday, this practice was eagerly anticipated; at least by a few teams. While the skies were bright and clear on Saturday, the temperature was just warm enough for pushers and drivers to do their thing. Sunday Rolls were called off on Saturday morning in anticipation of temperatures below 25F and subsequent low team turnout.
This past weekend, Pittsburgh saw some more wintry weather. While snow wasn’t flying, a 20F morning on Saturday lead to cancelled Rolls. Fortunately the temperature on Sunday crept up above freezing and we were able to have Mini-Raceday! The tl;dr is that Spirit took fastest Freeroll, the PiKA women were the swiftest on the backhills, and SDC took both fastest men’s backhills and fastest overall time. The official Sweepstakes times are towards the end of the post along with timing data from the BAA’s own Shafeeq S.