Members-Only Raceday Preview is out

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 3 Comments on Members-Only Raceday Preview is out

We sent out one of our favorite members-only perks last night around midnight: our Raceday Preview.  This year’s 11-page publication covers each team in depth with pictures, stats, and narratives.  If you haven’t followed along all year, we hope that it gets you up to speed for raceday.  If you’re a regular cmubuggy.org junkie, we know your hunger to consume buggy material this time of year in insatiable, but that you’ll like this pdf especially.

If you’re not a member yet, follow the big “Join” button from this page:

http://cmubuggy.org/join/

It’s only $10, you get a whole list of members-only benefits, and you’re helping to support our efforts to make buggy better than ever.  If you can keep the option, “Display my name in the list of attendees for this event” checked when paying your dues on the AH site, that lets us quickly confirm that you’re paid up.  Send us an e-mail at admin@cmubuggy.org, and you’ll have your pdf in no time.

If you have already paid your dues but didn’t get the email overnight, send us an e-mail at admin@cmubuggy.org.  We don’t always have the most up-to-date data from alumni house, or we may have just screwed up.  We’ll remedy things quickly.

This is the one weekend per year that we don’t publish a rolls-report, so I apologize if you were checking eagerly this morning for that.  You’ve got to chip in to get your fix this week.  There are plenty of pictures from the weekend (here and here).

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, compubookie’s annual post is available online here at thetartan.org

24 hours left in Lead Truck Auction, Bid now!

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 2 Comments on 24 hours left in Lead Truck Auction, Bid now!

Action in this year’s Lead Truck auction has been lively through the first 61 hours, but like they say on the back hills, we need to finish strong. The currently winning bidders have pledged $899 which is awesome, but we’ve got a ways to go to make the most of our $2,000 matching gift.  Don’t let us leave money on the table that could go towards making buggy more fun and exciting for alumni and current students.

http://www.cmubuggy.org/auction

There are still plenty of affordable heats, and some high profile heats that aren’t as high yet as they were last year.  Remember, every dollar you put it in is worth $2 to the BAA!  A summary of the current winning bids for your convenience:

Women’s Prelims

  • $21 : Fringe C, KKG-ZBT A, SDC D
  • $11 : SDC B, Spirit B, CIA B
  • $25 : SN A, PiKA B, SigEp B
  • $31 : Fringe A, SDC C, CIA A
  • $10 : Spirit A, SAE A, AEPi A
  • $30 : PiKA A, Beta A, Fringe B
  • $11 : SDC A, SigEp A, Spirit C
 Women’s Finals

  • $71 – first pick
  • $70 – second pick
  • $25 – third pick
Men’s Prelims

  • $21 : SAE A, PiKA D, PhiKap C
  • $21 : Fringe C, CIA C
  • $21 : Spirit B, KKG-ZBT A, AEPi C
  • $16 : SDC B, PiKA C, CIA D
  • $36 : SN A, Spirit C, PhiKap B
  • $10 : SigEp A, SDC D
  • $35 : Fringe B, CIA A, AEPi B
  • $31 : PiKA B, SigEp B, Beta A
  • $22 : Spirit A, CIA B, Fringe D
  • $32 : PiKA A, SDC C, Pioneers A
  • $35 : Fringe A, AEPi A, SN B
  • $31 : SDC A, SigEp C, PhiKap A
 Men’s Finals

  • $66 – first pick
  • $65 – second pick
  • $55 – third pick
  • $50 – fourth pick
  • $49 – fifth pick

Hey SDC, Spirit, and SigEp alumni, you’re not going to let your A team heats go for less than $15 are you?  That’s right, I’m calling you out, support your teams, they’re going to think you don’t care about them!

Update: There was interest in lead truck rides during the exhibition heats (especially the PiKA – Beta – SN showdown), so we have added those to the auction.  Click here to see the current bidding.

Heats are selected; Start bidding now in the auction

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 11 Comments on Heats are selected; Start bidding now in the auction


55 teams will contest this year’s men’s and women’s races, up 5 from last year.  That’s what we like to see.  Mission #3 of the buggy alumni association coming up spades.  Even though we’re up 5 teams, there will be only 19 heats which is 6 fewer than last year.  The trick is that since hill 1 was repaved this summer, buggy can once again use all three lanes and set up some action-packed heats.

Now that the heats are settled and it is 9am Friday morning, the auction is open for bids!  Head right on over to

http://cmubuggy.org/auction

and get in on the action.  Remember …

and the heats are:

Update: There were  few last minute changes to the heats which are now marked in orange …

  • Phikap will not be entering a Men’s C
  • CIA C moved from lane 2 to lane 3 in Men’s heat 2
  • CIA A moved from heat 7 to heat 6

Continue reading →

Thursday Poll: Who’s going to get a trophy?

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 19 Comments on Thursday Poll: Who’s going to get a trophy?

Trophy count by team 2000-2009Today is the last Thursday we’ve got before the circus comes to town, so I’m going to cut straight to the heart of the matter with this, the final Thursday Poll of the year.  Who do you think is going to go home with a trophy from this year’s races?

When it comes to raceday predictions, picking the winners is the more obvious game, but it’s not nearly as interesting.  Over the past 10 years, we’ve only seen 3 teams win the men’s or women’s races.  It’s the same three teams in each contest, and I don’t think you’d find many people betting on anyone else to win either of this year’s races.

Picking the trophy winners (1st-3rd for the Women and 1st-6th for the Men) on the other hand, requires a more nuanced and sophisticated look at the field.  8 different women’s teams and 13 men’s teams have taken a trip on stage to claim hardware in the last 10 years.  3 of last year’s 9 winners were not on stage the year before.  So, with that historical context, pick which teams you think will have something to drink from this year.

Keep in mind, DQs and spins are part of the equation.  Look at that 2004 column if you don’t believe me.  Teams on the ballot have either won a trophy in the last 5 years, or made it to day 2 last year.


Click through to vote or see the results … Continue reading →

$2000 matching donation for the BAA!

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 8 Comments on $2000 matching donation for the BAA!

Lead TruckIt’s that exciting time of year in the buggy world for teams and alumni alike.

We’ve just been contacted by an extremely generous anonymous donor that is pledging up to $2000 to the BAA as a matching gift to whatever we raise from the lead truck auction.  This is by far the largest gift we’ve received to date, and we can say how honored we are to warrant such a generous contribution.  It just goes to show how much buggy means to all of us buggy alumni, and we’re just glad we can be here to help keep everyone connected.

That said, the most important thing we need to focus on now is that this is a matching donation. We don’t have any of that gift yet.  It’s up to you! Every dollar that you bid in the lead truck auction will be doubled.  To earn the entire $2000 pledge, we need to get $2000 in bids from all the rest of you passionate buggy fans. Continue reading →

DTD down for the year, but not out

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 5 Comments on DTD down for the year, but not out

Sweepstakes has officially decided, and DTD has confirmed, that 2010 is not going to be the year they break back onto the raceday scene.  DTD made its first appearance on the buggy course in recent history in October and got off to a good start.  They had their share of incidents, but in the fall that’s just part of being new.  Problem was that the incidents kept piling up regularly into the spring and it didn’t seem like they had a reasonable chance of making it around the course on raceday.

One of the BAA’s stated goals is to encourage greater participation in the sport, so we’re interested in their experience and how we can help teams like them in the future.  We got in contact with DTD’s co-buggy-chair, Ian McIntyre, and asked a few questions: Continue reading →

Rolls Report – April 3 & 4

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 16 Comments on Rolls Report – April 3 & 4

SigEp's Barracuda on Hill 3The carnival weather was out already for the last weekend of rolls before truck weekend.  Temperatures were in the low 60s on Saturday and low 50s on Sunday to greet the 14 orgs ramping up to raceday.  The list of incidents is long compared to the details about who is doing well, but don’t let that fool you, it’s just easier to note the mishaps.  Many of the mid-tier teams are making serious charges towards competing for trophies, and the regulars are quietly perfecting their skills and building their teams.  Every roll is being timed and reviewed.  Every transition matters to pushers old and new.  It’s almost raceday.

In attendance (spring 2010 buggies, qualified w/ at least 1 driver)

Org Saturday Sunday
AEPi Kamikaze, Aether, Zephyrus Kamikaze, Aether
Beta Problem Child
CIA Conquest, Firebird, Quasar, Renaissance Conquest, Firebird, Quasar, Freyja
DTD Bethany Bethany
Fringe Banyan, Blizzard, Bantam, Borealis Banyan, Blizzard, Bantam, Borealis
KKG / ZBT Volos Volos
PhiKap Schadenfreude, Svengali, Celerity Schadenfreude, Svengali, Celerity
Pioneers Chaos
PiKA Chimera, Nemesis, Zeus, Knightfall Chimera, Nemesis, Zeus
SAE Rubicon Rubicon
SDC Malice, Psychosis, Rage, Avarice, Envy Malice, Psychosis, Rage, Avarice, Envy
SigEp Barracuda, Pandora, Peregrin Barracuda, Pandora, Peregrin
SigNu Skua, Bungarus Krait Skua, Bungarus Krait
Spirit Haraka, Fuko, Kingpin Haraka, Fuko

Observations (Saturday gallery, Sunday gallery) Continue reading →

Golf, water bottles, and t-shirts

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 2 Comments on Golf, water bottles, and t-shirts

It’s that time of year when everyone has things to announce, and thanks to all yinz, cmubuggy.org is one of the best places to do it. Sweepstakes and Alumni Relations both have our back when we’re trying to get things done, so we’re happy to spread the good word from them:

Spring Carnival Alumni Golf Outing

Murrysville Golf Murrysville Golf Club, Murrysville, PA
Sunday, April 18

Join alumni for the Spring Carnival Alumni Golf Outing.  Breakfast, a snack at the turn, cart, 18 holes of golf and a closing lunch are included.  Shuttle service is available and will leave from the University Center Circle at 8 am.  Registration on-site and breakfast begin at 8:30 am.  Registration Required/Event Fee: $95 & due upon registration.

To register, please visit:
http://www.cmu.edu/alumni/involved/events/carnival/registration-golf/index.html

Pre-order Sweepstakes Merchandise

Sweepstakes has tshirts, buggy books, and those stainless steel water bottles that are all the rage.

Sweepstakes Tshirt 2010Sweepstakes water bottle 2010The tshirt design and waterbottle designs are at left, click for a bigger version.   T-shirts and water bottles are going for $10 each.  Buy any two items for $18.  That’s a $2 discount!  Tshirts come in sides Youth Medium, Youth Large, and then Adult Small through Adult 2XL.

Buggy books are $5 to everyone other than active participants.  The cover of the buggy book is a secret until raceday to build that suspenseful atmosphere.  Don’t count on getting the buggy book PDF on cmubuggy for free, we’ll wait a year to post it so that we don’t undercut the way buggy book printing gets paid for.

Pre-order now to avoid the hustle and bustle on raceday by e-mailing sweepstakes chair Jess Thurston: jessicathurston532@gmail.com.  Pickup would ideally be at design comp, but raceday pickups are possible, arrange by e-mail.

Thursday Poll – Finding a home for the jumbotron

Posted on | by Sam Swift

Jumbotron chute locations

As we announced recently, we are very excited to be helping to bring not one, but two jumbotrons to buggy this year.  The first will be at the top of hill to next to the leaderboard just as it was last year.  The second will be down in the chute so fans in either of the primary viewing areas will be able to follow the entire race for the first time.

After the general idea was announced, we were happy to facilitate a spirited discussion about which particular location in the chute area would be best for the new jumbotron.  If you haven’t been following, you can catch up here in the forums.  There are pros and cons to almost any location, but the some of the things to consider include:

  • Placing the optimum viewing area somewhere that a large number of people can see it.
  • Not using up too much prime space on the ground that people like to stand in with the unit itself .
  • Not creating a tempting hazard by putting too much of the prime viewing area in the road.
  • Staying “outside” the course because it is not possible to get cables over the road this year.

The black rectangles are the actual size of the jumbotron’s footprint.  The beige rectangle is the rough size and location of the cmuTV scaffolding.  The actual viewing area is a bit larger and wider than depicted.  Let it be said that this can not be a purely democratic decision.  In the end, sweepstakes is responsible for this decision, and they are responsible to more concerns than us fans.  Getting a sense of the popular opinion is important to them though, hence this poll.  So, if you were in charge, where would you put it?

Click through to vote and see results Continue reading →

Buggy books 1965-2009 now online

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 4 Comments on Buggy books 1965-2009 now online

Buggy books are one of our best sources for buggy history.  Just like old yearbooks, they’re just fun to browse through to see how much things have changed and how much they’ve stayed the same.  Teams no longer proudly describe their build process in detail as was common into the mid 70’s.  Check out this description offered by ATO in 1968:

The “Golden Goose’s” design is based on the aerodynamic features of a teardrop and is constructed of a plywood and steel frame with a molded fiberglass shell.  In 1959 air scoops were added to improve the aerodynamic qualities of the buggy … Despite good times last year, both buggies were disqualified because of failure to pass a brake test.  This year the ATO’s will add improved brake systems.”

and by Beta in the same year: Continue reading →