After a nice couple weekends off for Fall Break, we’re back into the swing with rolls. Dan was out again this week running a marathon, but I found a way to sneak in some training for the BAA vs Sweepstakes exhibition as well (read to the end to find out how!). We had a whopping 8 teams making an appearance this weekend, with some clearly putting in the reps in advance of Mini Raceday.
This year, Mini Raceday coincides with Homecoming (Nov 8/9)! We rely on volunteers to help make it happen — if you’re interested in pitching in, you can read more here!
| Org | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Apex | Solaris, Molotov | Scorch, Molotov |
| CIA | Goldfinch, Emperor, Starling | Goldfinch, Roadrunner |
| DG | Insite | — |
| Fringe | Baltic, Blackbird, Blind Faith | Blackbird, Bermuda |
| PiKA | Raptor | — |
| SDC | Paranoia, Lust, Avarice | Paranoia, Lust |
| SigEp | Barracuda | Barracuda |
| Spirit | Inviscid, Seraph, Zuke | Inviscid, Seraph, Kingpin |
Photos: Saturday Gallery (upload) | Sunday Gallery (upload)
General Observations
- We’ve definitely crossed the threshold from the warmer mornings of the first half of the semester into the colder months and teams are bundling up. Now so can you, repping a new BAA crewneck! Warm, stylish, and available in 2 colors!
- Fresh faces on the course! While the bulk of the rolls so far have been dominated by the independents, we saw PiKA, SigEp, and DG all out this weekend.
- With many teams racking up rolls, some buggies are donning the trash bags once again — for pass tests in the fall! Sweeps is working on a new format for Mini Raceday featuring some heat-style races, necessitating teams to get their pass tests in before Homecoming.
Team Observations
- Apex — A couple of their buggies seemed to be dressed up — they had some paper “costumes” on the back of Solaris and Molotov, but we’ll see if they come back with something more substantial for next weekend. On Sunday, we saw Scorch back on the course, but it seems like there may be some trouble getting it all the way around the hills. It was moving quite slowly through the freeroll and throughout the day, Apex chose to unload their driver at the bottom of Hill 3.
- CIA — Fringe alumni attempts to steal Goldfinch off the course! With SigEp mixing in with CIA to get more rolls, there was some confusion during a pass test to get CIA pushers on the back hills, resulting in a local alum doing a Goldfinch 3-4. Other than that, CIA had an uneventful weekend.
- DG — It was great seeing our only sorority back on the course. They brought Insite out for this weekend, although the rumor on the street is that their first build is still in progress. They brought plenty of energy on Saturday, with lots of cheers for their pushers from the follow car.
- Fringe — Fringe kicked things off with our first pass test of the season this year. Despite being a bit shorthanded on pushers, they continued to rack up clean rolls across their fleet this weekend.
- PiKA — Although they were only out on Saturday, they still got a good chunk of rolls in, leading the Greek orgs in total rolls. Raptor continues to carry its speed well through the freeroll. They were also able to execute on a pass test, partnering with SDC.
- SDC — SDC had another tough weekend. In the first roll Saturday morning, Avarice went wide in the chute, hitting the outer bales. Sweeps was able to clear the accident relatively quickly, getting the driver checked by EMS and the buggy off the road in around 10 minutes. The driver is ok, though we don’t know how much damage Avarice sustained in the crash.
- SigEp — SigEp also had their first appearance at rolls this semester, bringing out Barracuda. As mentioned earlier, they were able to double up on rolls with CIA to get their pass test in by the end of their first weekend. They put up a solid performance, showing good speed out of the gate.
- Spirit — Spirit had some really strong rolls this weekend, right alongside some weaker ones. In one roll, Inviscid rolled almost to Hill 4, clearly burning their Hill 3 pusher, only to later in the day take a big slide, putting them only inches away from the outer bales. From what I saw Sunday, they were rolling a bit more consistently — maybe they just needed a bit more time to warm up after Fall Break.
Bonus Pre-Halloween Special Feature
While we’re hoping to have more teams out with costumes next weekend, some folks were already getting in the spirit. Here’s a couple photos of our favorites so far.
As always, if you would like to help contribute notes or photos/video for these rolls reports, you can sign up to help here or reach out to Dan.
If you have additional notes or corrections, feel free to reach out to myself (@jamestwong on Discord / jameswong@cmubuggy.org) or Dan (@.dbec on Discord / danbecerra@cmubuggy.org).
Thanks to Jazz and Guillermo for their contributions this week!