Buggy Races Keep Rolling at Carnegie Mellon

In its 99th year, the tradition is a Spring Carnival treat. Sweepstakes, also known as the Buggy Races , has come a long way at Carnegie Mellon University. The slick, torpedo-like vessels carrying drivers with nerves of steel are a far cry from the two-man teams that once changed places halfway through a race and rode in everything from rain barrels with bicycle wheels to three-wheeled ash cans 99 years ago. Today, it takes six people to maneuver the.84 -mile course around Schenley Park's Flagstaff Hill. But while five pushers and a driver navigate the course's hills, dozens of people are needed to make a successful race happen. A year of planning goes into just over two minutes of racing. The Machine.