I'll be going back to New York with sunburn. Who ever heard of going to Pittsburgh for a vacation and getting sunburned? This is ridiculous.
In an apparently controversial decision, Fringe A was disqualified from the women's competition due to interference: the standard pusher-finishes-their-exchange-and-immediately-runs-to-the-sidewalk. Sadly, SDC A was trailing closely behind and the pusher wandered right in front of their buggy. A rare mental lapse for a team as disciplined as Fringe.
Double oops: The Fringe men, with a time that would have easily put them in first place, missed the pushbar.
To add insult to injury, Fringe B was over a second slower compared to their time yesterday. Just not a good day for Fringe compared to their hopes.
Pioneers D managed to DQ for an intoxicated driver. It's amazing that this person is a full-time CMU student. Heck, it's amazing that this person is a homo sapien.
KDR A. Women's. DQ for not getting the buggy to the start line before 5 seconds.
KDR A. Men's. DQ for not getting the buggy to the start line before 5 seconds.
Is this rule really that difficult?
Maybe all the orgs could chip in a buck and buy them an alarm clock.
Returning to dominance the PiKA Women put in a very impressive showing at 2:31.04. Two years ago PiKA set a new course record. Last year they let Beta blow their doors off (and finished behind Fringe A, SigNu A, and SDC A). Evidentally they're back.
The only two questions left for tomorrow are will they roll cleanly and will they set a new record?
We knew Fringe A was good. But Fringe B? They turned in a mammoth performance on a day that top buggy teams had trouble finishing the course correctly.
SDC A spins. Who would've ever guessed that buggy had a suspension?
I guess that's a problem with suspensions. They're another thing to break. And breaking appears to be the primary function of most parts of a buggy.
This failure was fairly spectacular.
But really, the SDC A didn't turn into something truly delicious until after (right after) the buggy ground to it's final, sickening halt and a spectactor (SDC mechanic? SDC alum? SDC idiot?) leapt over the haybales and courageously flung his jacket or a small blanket over the axle (or at least one part of it, since it didn't appear to survive the crash) of the buggy. But that was just the start of what SDC has apparently been practicing for all year: Operation Coverup!
...
Two heats later SDC delivered another tickler to their eager fans: SDC D's rear hatch fell off at the feet of a spectactor. After he picked up the small piece of carbon fiber and epoxy, another crack SDC Private swooped down, grabbed it from him, and skillfully hid it under his t-shirt.
SigNu A and Fringe C.
PiKA A Men's: Wow!
...
Spirit B was trailing PiKA by 5 seconds, followed by CIA B another few seconds later. The two organizations chose drastically different ways of dealing with the stopped buggy.
Spirit B, showing the poise and precision driving they're justly famous for, made a beautiful line ending in the haybales about 1 foot to the left of PiKA. Ouch. Watching the crash I'm not convinced it was actually caused by the PiKA obstruction (it looked too controlled and too much like a typical Spirit sort of thing to do) but I certainly can't say it wasn't caused by PiKA.
CIA B happily drove to the inside of what was now a two buggy crash and rolled up the hill, seemingly oblivious to the excitement below. As a minor bummer, the buggy's pushbar was also oblivious to the need to come back up until the hill 3 pusher had a good chat with it.
Kappa A came out with a very strong men's push team. And they didn't get disqualified. And their buggy isn't even the ugliest or slowest buggy on the course. Do I sense a new dynasty in the making?
AEPi A: they finished! And I think that compared to their booth this was something for them to be proud of.