About Last Semester...

Ah springtime! Oakland and Shadyside are once again seeing life. Public busses have once again resumed their usual schedule of, “yeah, you’re gonna have to wait for 30 minutes in the cold then 5 busses will show up simultaneously, what are you gonna do about it?" Shadyside bar bouncers are once again scoffing at a steady stream of underage students. Professors are sheepishly emerging from their research comas and dragging themselves back to their lecture podiums. You know what that means! The second semester of the CMU 2018-19 school year is upon us! More importantly...

We’re going full speed ahead to Raceday 2019!

Since last semester was a bit of a blur, we wanted to give the alumni (and frankly some of the sleep-deprived students) a quick recap of what the team has done so far. Feel free to ask any questions that we didn’t get around to answering in the comments below!

How many times did we roll?

77

How many buggies did we roll?

Usually 4 buggies but sometimes 3 (Seraph, Kingpin, Zuke, Inviscid)

How many drivers did we have?

5. Beichen, Chloe, Diamond, Nina (Fringe convert, woot!), and Rebecca. Diamond is helping out even though she has a leg injury by coaching the newest drivers. (Look at her go on her scooter!)

How many mechanics usually came out to rolls?

Enough to have 2-3 new mechanics per buggy with veteran mechanics to spare!!!

How about Pushers?

6-12 on average. On the last day of rolls we had almost 20.

And Flaggers?

5

What was the average SRS freeroll time on Mini Raceday?

58 seconds

Best SRS freeroll time on Mini Raceday?

56 seconds

Team with best freeroll time on mini Raceday?

Fringe, 55 seconds

Number of SRS mechanical failures?

1. It was during mini Raceday. No serious injuries to the driver or buggy…Just a little hurt pride.

Team with fastest men’s backhill time on Mini Raceday?

 SPIRIT!

SRS Women’s backhill time on Mini Racday?

1 minutes, 11 seconds.

Team with fastest men’s backhill time on Mini Raceday?

Pika, 55 seconds

SRS Men's backhill time on Mini Racday

59 seconds

Goals for next semester?

Top 5 for Mens, Top 5 for Womens, and finish the buggy mold that we will use to make the next few buggies.

Are these goals achievable?

Yes, of course!

Yahuh, how do we know?

 

According to last year’s final times, in order to get back into the top 5 we’ll need a sub 2:15:00 for Men’s and a sub 2:38:00 for Women’s. We have achieved these times multiple times in the past few years but have fallen short on Raceday due to DQs and lack of wheel optimization.  Our mini-raceday times support that we’ll be able to attain these goals. Since we have four active drivers for this semester we will have at least four teams, but would love to have more.  

What do you think will be the hardest part of this semester?

 

Achieving our goals comes down to recruiting and the dedication we can invoke in the pushers. In addition, this semester we must find the team’s next leaders and transition them into their positions to ensure a good start to next year. All while trying to win this year. We are also looking to continue to strengthen the relationship between the current team and alumni.

Ok now what we really care about. Are there going to be exhibitions so us old alums can relive our “glory” days?

We’re not sure on how exhibitions will work this year since there always seems to be some trouble, but we’ll keep you posted. If you have any other questions that didn't get answered, feel free to post them down below in the comments.