Sweepstakes' most "Forbidden" topic: Cheating!

[Elmo Zoneball]

Since we have a few weeks with no FR going on, and everybody is bored to tears, I'm going to take this opportunity to raise what may be the most controversial of all topics in Buggydom: CHEATING. That's right: CHEATING!

I'm interested in hearing examples from both victims and perpetrators.

I'm sure some of you are already shocked by this topic -- "why, no one would ever cheat in Buggy" you might being shouting as you read this. To which all I can say is: "Don't be naive" -- we all know people involved in buggy who flunked out of school because they were so obsessed with winning the race that they neglected their academic studies, with scholastically fatal consequences. Similarly, there are numerous instances of "malicious interference" with competing orgs perpetrated throughout the history of buggy, and the line that separates outright cheating (defined for the purpose of this discussion as a rule violation whose purpose is to make your buggy go faster) from the broader realm of things that will screw up your competitors' ability to compete, that it requires enormous credulity to think that people will do the latter but never the former.

Examples of "malicious interference" include things like epoxying the locks on the garage door of a competitor the night before FR, stealing a competitor's entire steering assembly before Race Day, and using your D team to intentionally False Start in the Heat with the fastest rolling buggy on campus, delaying the heat by 2 minutes.

But I'm most interested in examples of overt, outright affirmative cheating -- an induction motor hidden in the wheel, a nose that can be extended 6 inches to beat the competitor at the finish line, using the pneumatic brake air source to produce thrust, secret energy storage devices and mechanisms, that sort of thing -- that are intended to improve the performance of the buggy outside the rules. I have no personal knowledge of actual affirmative cheating (though have been on the receiving end of "malicious interference"), but I am convinced it must have happened, and probably more than once.

This thread is your opportunity to spill some dirty secrets of Sweepstakes. Whether first hand or second, please step up and share what you know, what you heard, or what you suspected was going on.



Ground rules:

• 1. anything 5 years ago or more is hereby declared beyond the statute of limitations, so feel free to share. What is done, is done. Bygones are bygones.
  
  2. names of guilty may be omitted or altered as you see fit. We are more interested in the "what" than the "who" at this point.
  
  3. no taking hostages.
  
  4. Disclaimer: nothing in this thread should be interpreted as advocating cheating.
  
  5. First Rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club....

Let the fun begin...... share your stories of intrigue.

[Elmo Zoneball]

Another example of "Malicious interference": some teams in the Deep Dark old days of Sweepstakes required significant amounts of electrical power in the truck or tent on Race Day, and many ran an extension cord inside Maggie Morrison and used the nearest electrical outlet to get power.

Mysteriously, the power would go out shortly before the start of the heat. Sent to investigate, a member of the organization which lost power would run inside, only to find the plug firmly in the wall socket. Much yelling and screaming commenced.

It turned out *somebody* had found the circuit breaker panel, and had intentionally flipped the breaker on their competitor's electrical outlet at the most inopportune moment .....

Following that experience, the next year we positioned a member at the breaker panel, with instructions to use violence if necessary to keep the breaker on.

[40dogg]

You need to get a jump off the line by winding a huge rubber band around the centerline wheel and stretching it the length of the buggy. Once the band finishes its boost it slips off and hides under the driver, 'cause, you know, flywheels are too overt.

[Elmo Zoneball]

You need to get a jump off the line by winding a huge rubber band around the centerline wheel and stretching it the length of the buggy. Once the band finishes its boost it slips off and hides under the driver, 'cause, you know, flywheels are too overt.

Is this just a hypothetical method, or did somebody try something akin to it?

[40dogg]

A hypothetical alternative to the tired flywheel theories.

I did hear about a Beta buggy that flipped over (some time in the 90's). As people ran over someone noticed wheels spinning slower, slower, slowerrrr. And then all of sudden faster.

[Elmo Zoneball]

A hypothetical alternative to the tired flywheel theories.

I did hear about a Beta buggy that flipped over (some time in the 90's). As people ran over someone noticed wheels spinning slower, slower, slowerrrr. And then all of sudden faster.

Good story!

Anybody here on BAA care to corroborate or debunk this?

I should parenthetically add that when I see buggies doing drag race burnouts before their Heat, I get very suspicious.....

;-)

[Elmo Zoneball]

You need to get a jump off the line by winding a huge rubber band around the centerline wheel and stretching it the length of the buggy. Once the band finishes its boost it slips off and hides under the driver, 'cause, you know, flywheels are too overt.

Another thought; if cheating has actually occurred, I suspect the methods employed are much more subtle, and hard to detect, than the obvious stuff, e.g., flywheels.

The clever cheat would give his buggy a boost at times and locations where it is least obvious to observers. A little boost at the push-off on Hill #2 would pay big dividends, and who's to say the pushers arms aren't that strong?


Hmmmmmmmm.........

Disclaimer: nothing in this thread should be interpreted as advocating cheating.

[40dogg]

Disclaimer: nothing in this thread should be interpreted as advocating cheating.

Exactly. Not that Sweepstakes wasn't looking before, but they certainly will be now.

[mldarm]

What about the pushers? I have heard of pushers taking "performance enhancing" drugs on race day. Since there is no testing, there's nothing to stop the use of longer-term performance drugs either.

[Elmo Zoneball]

Another well-known dirty trick in the "malicious interference" category was breaking into the garage of a competitor and stealing tools, equipment, Derby wheels, etc. The standard technique involved removing the door hinge pins and gaining entry, even though the door was locked.

Subsequently, many of the door hinge pins in the garage area were WELDED to their hinge plates, to inhibit uninvited visitors.