2024 Buggy - Women's Heat 9
Lane 1 - Spirit A (Seraph) - 2: 41.72
Lane 2 - Apex B (Firefly) - 2: 59.30/DQ (Drops)
00:00 - Rosters
00:52 - Race Start
04:12 - Drop Test
Buggy (also called Sweepstakes) is a race held annually since 1920 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Teams of five athletes (the pushers) push an un-motorized vehicle (a buggy) containing a driver (an actual person) around a 0.84 mile course in a relay format where the vehicle serves as the baton. Roughly half of the course is uphill, during which the pushers run and shove the buggy uphill. During the other - downhill - half, drivers are on their own to navigate tight turns at speeds of up to 40mph. For more information, visit cmubuggy.org
Drop Test is a safety test to make sure that the buggy rolled with working brakes. The buggy needs to stop before the last line (and then the brakes need to be released and re-brake two more times). If it doesn't stop in time, the team is DQ'd. Back when brakes were first required back in the 1950s, teams used to try and game the system, either by removing the brakes just before the race began or making them single-use (in order to make the buggies lighter), which obviously presents a major safety concern in a sport where safety is the #1 priority.