The second weekend of rolls this year brought more good weather, more teams, and more animals and bikers in need of chasing off of the course! A mostly clean Saturday was followed by a Sunday with a few minor incidents to report as the teams bring on new drivers and/or added some speed from last week. All the details below!



Apex and Spirit at the bottom of Hill 1 on another beautiful day of rolls!

OrgSaturdaySunday
ApexFirefly, ScorchSolaris
AtlasMonacoMonaco
CIAEmperor, Roadrunner, KingfisherEmperor, Goldfinch, Kingfisher
FringeBlackbird, BurnoutBurnout, Bumper
RobobuggyShort Circuit, NAND
SDCVice, Inferno, Avarice, LustInferno, Vice, Avarice
SigEpHydra
SpiritZuke, InviscidZuke

Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) / Sunday Gallery (upload)

General Observations:

  • Our team count grew by two this week, as Atlas and SigEp made their debuts in the roll order. Yes, that now means our two robotic buggy orgs were both in the rolls order this week, getting practice and also keeping the early season pushers for all the teams from having to run rollarounds! Teams were also out gathering more data than the first week, including some drone footage you can see in our gallery. Lookout for a future announcement where you will be able to find these in full resolution!


This is Avarice in the chute, not a drone video. But you can find drone videos in the Sunday gallery!

  • Our continued good weather this weekend meant more busy barricaders. The first roll of the day on Saturday, a biker blew past the chute barricade, ignoring several shouts and coming too close for comfort to Invisicd. Sweepstakes sent another barricader out to the chute for the rest of the day for support, and Sunday proved calmer from that perspective, although there continued to be many runners that flaggers, alumni and barricaders had to deal with.


No picture here, but Invsicid rolled through fine!

  • The wildlife of Schenley Park enjoy the good weather too- click the link on the right (below on mobile) to see CIA’s Kingfisher on the backhills meeting… well, we won’t spoil it! (The pushers continue to stay vigilant to try to prevent these from occurring.)

Team Observations:

  • Apex. Apex was out both days this weekend – including with the debut of Scorch for the season with a new driver on Saturday. They went around the course both days with no reported issues, a solid weekend. They even did a full Hill 1 with Solaris on Sunday!


Scorch starting a tight line

  • Atlas. Our second robotic team made an appearance this weekend- Monaco rolled both days. They were a little more unorthodox in their line, it seemed very eager to get as close as it could to the monument before swerving away towards the chute. With so little weight on the buggy, it didn’t go very fast through the turn allowing for some impressive remote handling, including popping one back wheel off the road before settling down into a stop. Each time through the order, Monaco was removed from the road in the chute and jogged back up the back hills.


This is around where they decide to stop

  • CIA. CIA brought two new drivers to the course this weekend and were a team that was incident free (minus the tussle mentioned above). They continue to bring out impressive numbers, and it looked like they were experimenting with lines with their veteran drivers, trying wider and tighter.


Goldfinch nearing the finish line, outfitted with numerous data-gathering devices

  • Fringe. Fringe had 3 buggies total rolling this weekend, two each day. You won’t see Burnout listed on the rolls tracker for Sunday though, since it did not make it around the course. We understand a new driver on her first roll in Burnout encountered an issue around the stop sign, and did not turn, rather stopping at the Panther Hollow Rd. barricade. So for the rest of Sunday it was the Bumper show!


Bumper!

  • Robobuggy. Both of Robobuggy’s buggies were making rounds on Saturday, with a strong showing on the human side as well to get them both around the course several times. They are continuing to gather that valuable data. The addition of Robo and Atlas to the rolls order means they are also completing drop tests, which we’ve heard is “amusing.” Let us know more in the comments!


Double Robobuggy on Hill “3”

  • SDC. SDC was out Saturday with 4 buggies and 3 on Sunday. Avarice made its return to the course with a new driver who made it around the course well. SDC had one incident Sunday, Vice stopped between transition and chute flags. Avarice following behind saw the stop flag and stopped promptly. We heard the issue may have been windshield-fogging related or some other visibility issue. Other than that SDC was moving quite quick around the course. SDC also continues to win the best follow car award- head to the gallery for some pictures of their flags- we’ll be watching to see what else they come up with on that front.


Inferno getting a solid Hill 2 as Avarice looks on

  • SigEp. SigEp made the return to the course on Saturday- the first Greek team to make an appearance this year. They brought a solid number of pushers, many of whom hung out in front of Scaife to take turns pushing Hydra up each roll. Hydra accumulated 3 rolls on Saturday, and SigEp didn’t come out on Sunday.



Hydra’s Season Debut

  • Spirit. Spirit’s buggies gained a bit more speed than last week, and we started to see some fishtailing in the chute turn that their drivers mostly recovered well. Unfortunately, the last roll of the weekend Sunday saw Zuke spin and hit the inner bales close to head-on. The bales did their job, EMS responded quickly and the driver was removed from the buggy and cleared.

Zuke made it through the chute fine several times previously- we know they’ll bounce back

No rolls next week due to the Great Race in Pittsburgh, but BAA and Sweeps will hopefully have something to share with you all in lieu of a rolls report.

Don’t forget, we have a sign-up to cover rolls here if you are in Pittsburgh. That sheet also has links to upload photos (updated every week)- let us know if you do so we can give you credit (DM Barsham or data at cmubuggy dot org). One again, you can reach me on discord or email with rolls notes. And don’t forget to comment if you’re a student with more to share, or an alum starting a discussion!

Thanks to Tiegan, Julia, TJ, and Lara for contributions this week!