CEE Students Behind the Wheel at CMU's Buggy Races

Buggy driving at CMU’s Spring Carnival is not just about speed; it represents teamwork, dedication, and the thrill of the ride. Safety is paramount, with drivers equipped with essential gear and flaggers ensuring a safe course during practice runs and races.

“I was joking with my friend about being a perfect fit for buggy since I’m 5’ 2”, and they were recruiting shorter people to become drivers,” first-year and newly declared CEE student Ivania Carranza says. “At first, I wasn’t sure if I was serious about driving, but I wanted to push myself to try to come out of my shell and socialize with more people on campus.”

Little did she know that joke would lead her to man the buggy named Kingpin. Despite the 4 a.m. practices every weekend and doubts, Ivania found herself deeply invested in the team's camaraderie and the thrill of mastering the buggy's maneuvers.

“I’ve been practicing since September and can now proudly say that I can make it through the chute turn without fishtailing— a skill I’ve been trying to improve for the past few months,” Carranza says and owes a lot to the team’s patience with her rookie driving skills. 

Senior Winona Wang's buggy career began as a freshman mechanic for Fringe. Over time, she fell in love with the challenge of the sport and building the buggies from scratch. This year when the team was short a driver, Wang decided to see if she would be able to fit inside and discovered she was the perfect size. 

In addition to driving for the team she also stepped up and pushed for Fringe as well. “We really needed more pushers, and throughout the past three years, I had done basically every role related to buggy, so I thought I might as well round it out with pushing,” she says.

The most rewarding part of buggy for Wang this year was building the team. “As chairman, I worked really hard to build the team up since we had a lot of seniors graduate, and a lot of the new team had no experience with buggy,” she says. Wang and her team achieved their safest year yet, rolling out multiple buggies on race day without any stops or accidents.

While this was the final season for Wang, Carranza looks forward to driving for Fringe next year. Both leave the experience as examples of the dedication to teamwork and the spirit this tradition embodies.