Yes, buggy is back! A foot and a half of snow a few weeks ago almost derailed us for the entire month of February, but a few warm days last week and some serious snow moving cleared the way for rolls. Read on for some more details on the orgs that braved the below 25 windchill to get their drivers practice this weekend. Also, your first video rolls report of the year is here! (Thanks, Rob!) The BAA is always working on new ways to offer buggy content, so let us know in the comments if you liked the video!

Fresh Finch of CIA

• Pittsburgh was buried in snow in late January this year. See some highlights from CMU’s Instagram here of students enjoying it! That meant some extra work cleaning up after the winter. The bike lanes needed shoveling out, and the area where the bales are stored was covered in a glacial amount of snow. The teams rallied when we got a few nicer days last week and cleared it all out.
  

The leftovers from Snowmaggedon 2. The teams pushed this down into the ravine where it may persist to Raceday

• It was a chilly day on Saturday but 8 teams still made it out. Saturday only this weekend, as some more snow rolled in Sunday. Thankfully we avoided another blizzard (unlike our eastern neighbors) so the course should be safe for when the students get back from Spring break.

Last roll of the day Saturday

• The first day back from a long break usually means teams are a bit rusty and we expect some stops, wobbly lines, or other incidents. But this weekend was different, as all drivers worked their way around the course without any problems! All started with bags, but many were off them by the end of the day.

Apex’s Solaris one of many clean chute turns

• Apex. Brought out a lot of people and buggies this weekend. All of them made it through the chute very well. On the very last roll though, there was a missed connection between flagger and org, and the last buggy (Molotov) didn’t get a chute flag out in advance. The flagger realized and waved the flag in front of the buggy right as it was to turn. She knew what she was doing though and seemed to make the turn without even needing the flag.

Apex Hill 2!

• CIA. It was a relatively light weekend for CIA with only two buggies rolling. Most noticeable was Goldfinch sporting a fresh paint job, with the nose that was previously damaged in a crash looking like new. While not confirmed, I’ve also heard the some of their drivers that rolled this weekend may now be fully qualified for Raceday (given that they passed in the Fall). Once we get closer to Raceday I will be keeping track of all qualifications in the report.

Another view of Goldfinch!

• DG. The biggest news in the buggy community leading into this day of rolls was DG’s new buggy. It had caped during the week, and we were eagerly awaiting the debut on the course. I even consulted our archivist and was ready with some unique historical comparisons. But, due to missing some key personnel, DG only rolled Insite this weekend. She rolled smoothly as always. We will have to wait until at least March 14th now!

Solid buggy, wrong hoodie

• Fringe. Very smooth day of rolls for Fringe and their 2 buggies that were out. I also hear they have a new build caped that we will see soon. They have become the most consistently building org on the course without a doubt. Every year without fail we see another reverse trike with an interesting paint job.

catching

• PiKA. Raptor returned, and was driven by two drivers this weekend. Including, the first rolls for a new driver! She moved around the course confidently so we hope to see some more depth from PiKA soon with another buggy rolling.

PiKA’s head driver getting a new driver ready to roll

• Robobuggy. Robo joined the order again this weekend and had both of their buggies out. There were some exciting races on the front hills, but as usual they don’t acquire a ton of momentum in the freeroll- especially with the cold and wind this weekend. The nearest thing to a true incident was at the finish line when a pusher didn’t catch the bar and did a dive that turned into a barrel roll. You can see it in the video rolls report posted above!

Robo races

• SDC. Paranoia picked up right where she left off and was the fastest buggy on the course to my eye. Lust was also rolling well and still working to fine-tune the line.

Paranoia still sporting the Halloween costume

• Spirit. All 4 of Spirit’s currently active buggies were rolling this weekend. It’s the first time in a while that I can remember Spirit having more buggies out in a day than any other org. No signs of the occasional sliding or spinning issues that we have seen in the past, very clean through the chute.

Very nice Chute this weekend