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 →