Every year, teams of Carnegie Mellon University students design, build, test, and race contraptions called buggies during the spring carnival. These buggies are engineered to be as aerodynamic as possible while still meeting safety guidelines set forth by the Sweepstakes Committee to ensure the safe operation by the driver (yes, there is a person in the buggy).

The concept is simple, a team of five pushers push the buggy in relay-style to get to the finish line. The first two are at the starting line and three-quarters of the way up a hill heading towards a drop. After hill one and two, the buggy goes into a free-roll that can reach top speeds of 40 MPH. The buggy free rolls down the hill, around two sharp bends, and starts up the back of the course on hill three, where another pusher starts to push, trading off at two points on the hill (hills four and five) to the finish line where the hill five pusher must have a hand on the buggy's push bar to be a valid race. The top ten teams with the fastest times on the first day of races compete in the finals on the second day to see who can get the fastest time.

These photos are from the 2019 Raceday.