Rolls Report 11/7 & 11/8

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 9 Comments on Rolls Report 11/7 & 11/8

Pittsburgh finally let buggy have a nice dry course for the weekend, so CMU stepped up and provided the torrents of water on Sunday.  Thanks CMU!  Saturday was sunny, 40-45 degrees, and over 2 hours long thanks to the end of day light savings.  Sweepstakes got through the roll order 3 full times despite a fair number of stoppages.  The first 40 minutes of Sunday went smoothly, but then Porter Hall decided to burst and spew disturbingly brown water out onto hill 3.  In just minutes the sidewalk, hill 3, and the outside of the chute were thoroughly flooded.

Mini-raceday is next weekend! Continue reading →

Rolls Report 10/25

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Rolls Report 10/25

Sorry for the later than usual report this week.  Post-game Steelers celebrations unexpectedly went all night.
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Saturday was rained out again this week bringing the tally to 4 rain-outs in the last 5 scheduled days of rolls, but Sunday was a perfect fall day for rolls.  Nice leaves, not too hot, not too cold.

In attendance:  AEPi, SigEp, DTD, Spirit, SigNu, PhiKap, SDC, PiKA, Fringe, CIA Continue reading →

cmubuggy.org turns 1!

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 3 Comments on cmubuggy.org turns 1!

That’s right, it seems like an institution already, but it was only a year ago that cmubuggy.org got started and gave the buggy lovers of the world a place to congregate.  The year-round trash talk, the authoritative source to resolve buggy trivia disputes, and the weekly updates of pictures and news all seemed to have been well received, so they are here to stay.  We want to thank all the alumni and current students that have visited and contributed to the site in the first year. It wouldn’t be any fun without you guys!

For everyone out there that gets a kick out of  quantifying their fun, here are some stats from cmubuggy.org’s first year:

  • 43,000+ visits by 11,900+ “unique” visitors
  • 553,000+ page-views
  • 300+ registered users
  • 1,400+ posts in 72 threads in the forum
  • 1,300+ pictures in the gallery
  • 100+ contributions to the history database (most of which were really many contributions)

Most popular pictures (according to google analytics, not the craptastic view counter in the gallery): Continue reading →

Driver tank tops available from Sweepstakes

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 4 Comments on Driver tank tops available from Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes is making and selling a run of driver-specific tank tops, and they were nice enough to ask if any alumni or other cmubuggy.org readers would like one while the order is going in.

Click on the thumbnail to take a look at the full design.

  • On pre-order now for $11
  • expected to arrive in 2 weeks
  • specify size: women’s S or women’s M
  • can be picked up at rolls or mailed to you
  • email sweepstakes chair, Jess Thurston to order –> jessicathurston532@gmail.com

Rolls Report 10/11

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 22 Comments on Rolls Report 10/11

Saturday was rained out and mercifully cancelled before 8pm Friday night, leaving time for other plans.

Sunday was just one of those days.  Some hold-up with the police and the outer barricades meant things didn’t get started until 7:40 or so.  From then on, the same teams and buggies that rolled super efficiently last week dragged through the roll order.  JB owes me “big money” on a bet that they would make it through the roll order a second time.  They were 6 orgs short. Continue reading →

Rolls Report 10/3 & 10/4

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 2 Comments on Rolls Report 10/3 & 10/4

Saturday 10/3 (full gallery here)
The rain stopped around 8pm Friday night, and sweepstakes was brave enough to bet on the course drying in 11 hours. It pretty much did. I wouldn’t have called it dry, but with a little extra caution from the orgs and drivers, things went pretty smoothly. Only 6 teams really rolled (SDC also sent one buggy down one time), so maybe the others called it a drinking night without checking the radar first.
Continue reading →

Protest now! G20 forces sweepstakes to cancel rolls!

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 1 Comment on Protest now! G20 forces sweepstakes to cancel rolls!

Actually, it would probably be a great weekend to roll. When else are we going to have the Secret Service and the US Army helping us keep cars off the course? From what we’ve seen so far, they sure as hell know how to get the job done. There are ten foot high steel crowd barriers lining almost the entire course, and jersey barriers ready and positioned to close off the gaps.

Just a reminder to those not on the sweepstakes list not to show up to rolls this weekend expecting buggies or a warm welcome.  It might also make for a bit of a slow news section until things get going again, but we’ll try to find something to entertain you.

Rolls Report 9/19

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Rolls Report 9/19

One nice day in September is a great way to start the year of buggy.  It’s early enough to capitalize on all that recruiting momentum and good weather.  At the same time, the G20 superseded rolls (and everything else in pittsburgh) Sunday and next weekend.  That give us all time to adapt to the fact that buggy happens way to damn early in the morning.

Rolls started right on time which I always think is a good metric on which to evaluate new sweepstakes committees.    Only 8 of the 14 teams on the roll order made it out, with SigNu being the most notable absence.   The starting line ups for the year were:
– Spirit : Haraka and Seraph
– SDC : Psychosis, Malice, Rage
– Fringe : Blizzard, Bantam, Bedlam, Banyan
– CIA : Firebird, Conquest, Quasar
– AEPi : Kamikaze, Zephyrus and Camo
– PiKA : Knightfall and Zeus
– PhiKap : Svengali and Schadenfreude
– SigEp : Barracuda and Pandora

Observations (Full gallery of pictures here) Continue reading →

Rolls efficiency statistics 2009

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 7 Comments on Rolls efficiency statistics 2009

As we start a new year of rolls with a new sweepstakes committee, I realized that we computed some stats on the number of rolls in the fall of last year, but forgot to follow up on that in the spring.  The idea with these stats is just to give sweepstakes and the orgs some feedback on how well their partnership is doing at getting buggies around the course.

So here is the summary for the 2009 buggy season: Continue reading →

Orgs come, orgs go

Posted on | by Sam Swift | 6 Comments on Orgs come, orgs go

Most years in buggy see the birth, rebirth, or death of an organization but the transition from 2009 to 2010 is looking busier than usual.  We hate to see anyone go, but it looks like the net migration might come out even or positive this year, so hopefully we can stay right around 50 teams on raceday.  The more the merrier.  Here’s the breakdown …

Continue reading →