We resume our coverage of the last 5 record breaking years with 1986.  The CD of all the buggy book scans is coming along nicely, and will be available on raceday.

1986 was a record setting year, but history was made on a number of fronts.  On day 1, ATO had a fire in their truck that came frighteningly close to a serious catastrophe that could have threatened the future of buggy.  The incident prompted school administration including Anne Witchner to convene a committee of alumni to create a new body of rules to protect the participants.  This work most likely saved buggy and provides the base of rules that still govern the sport.

After a dropping pushbar failure on hill 1 of their finals heat in 1985 took them out of contention, PiKA came back strong in ’86 to set the record at 2:08.67.

The PiKA win was historic and their 4th of the decade, but a newcomer would factor heavily into it also being their last until the 90’s.  Spirit entered the race for the first time and finished 4th in men’s and winning women’s- immediately catching the attention of those in the know and foreshadowing the beginning of a new power structure in buggy.

Buggy Book 1986

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The buggy alumni association’s coverage of the last 5 men’s course-record-breaking years continues this week with 1983.  Remember, these buggy books are just a sample of the exhaustive collection we are compiling for distribution on a CD available on raceday.

The year was 1983, and CIA’s 1981 course record of 2:10.50 was still the time to beat.  PiKA rose to that challenge and set the bar at 2:09 flat on a re-roll after an earlier collision with Beta.  Legend has it that PiKA’s hill 3 pusher was in the bathroom in Porter hall until the last minute when he ran out and helped brake the record by 1.5 seconds.  The new record marked the arrival at what would become a 25 year plateau in the 2:09 neighborhood.  In fact, the average winning time from 1983-2007 was 2:09.1.

Buggy Book 1983

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Today marks six weeks from Design Comp 2009, and that’s right about when the weather starts to hint at getting nicer and that buggy itch starts to really get to you. So to help everyone in the buggy world get through these long weeks, we’re going to take you on a tour of racedays past.

Each Thursday from now until Design Comp, we’ll post the buggy book from one of the last 5 men’s course-record-breaking years. On Raceday, the Buggy Alumni Association will be distributing DVDs with high quality PDFs of every buggy book ever printed for a modest fund-raising price yet to be determined.

Without further ado, we bring you
Buggy Book 1981

In 1981, Carnival weekend was completely rained out, and the races were finally held on the Sunday after Carnival. CIA’s track athletes powered the sleek, four-wheeled Black Magic to victory, smashing the record by nearly 5 seconds with a time of 2:10.50, and earning the first win by an independent. The Zoo came in second with a 2:14.2, and PiKA A spun out, leaving their B team to third with a 2:18.5.

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Sweepstakes is gearing up for another try at the first weekend of rolls, last week’s being thwarted by colder than desired temperatures.  So far, things aren’t looking too optimistic.  Last week, the 7am temperatures were 27 and 24 F which was cold enough to cancel things.  This weekend the 7am forecasts are 20 and 20 F.  Don’t worry, there is still plenty of time to improve on last year’s record-settingly late first day of rolls, March 23rd.

Update : Rolls are officially canceled for Saturday Feb 20th.  Too cold!
Update : Rolls are officially canceled for Sunday Feb 21st.  Too cold and snowy.

On the bright side, getting started a bit later probably gives teams more uninterrupted time to finish working on the new class of 2009 buggies.  So while we bide our time, lets think about what we’re likely to see on the course this year (in order of finishes in last year’s men’s races). Continue reading →