Season 4.0 Turtle Road Kill stats

Builder: Thomas Petruccelli
Driver: Sam Steyer, taken over by Jim Smentowski
Weight: 95 pounds
Drivetrain: Dayton with custom dual-stage gear reduction
Batteries: Three 12V Gel-Cell batteries in series for 36VDC
Control System: Futaba 8UAP and Vantec RDFR38e

Fight 1: vs. Buddy Lee Don't Play in the Street

Turtle Road Kill's first fight was against Buddy Lee.

I was not even around for this fight. I don't know how it went other than that Turtle won. Sam Steyer was driving Turtle for this fight, but apparently, they didn't expect to win, and the entire team had to leave the event afterwards on family business.

I happened to be strolling by Tom Petruccelli's pit where he had Crusher and Bad Attitude, along with Turtle under the table. I was taking photos for my event report, and needed a picture of Turtle. We got to talking about Turtle and I asked how he had been doing in the tournament. Tom explained the situtation and I was amazed how a team could just abandon their robot after winning it's first fight! Tom also told me that Turtle's next fight was in the next hour or so, and Turtle was left without a driver. (Tom couldn't drive it because he already had Bad Attitude entered in the MW division, and a team is only allowed one robot per weight class). We started talking about the possibilities, and, seeing as how I didn't have a Middleweight bot of my own, it came up that I should be the one to drive Turtle! We agreed that it was a great solution, and we contacted BattleBots staff and the Steyer family by phone. Soon, I found myself an honorary member of Team Steyer, and was handed the radio for Turtle, just minutes before his next fight! Hmm. No time to practice! Oh well, it wasn't my bot, I just wanted to have some fun!

Judge Decision on this fight was 23-22, a narrow win for the Turtle!


Fight 2: vs. Velocity

Turtle's next fight, and my first at the controls of Turtle, was against Velocity.

I don't remember too much about this fight, since it was my first time driving Turtle, I was mostly concentrating on driving with the controls in a format I was VERY unfamiliar with.

Somehow, I had managed to slam into Velocity and rammed the bot into the arena spke strip. Once we came apart, Velocity had stopped moving.

Turtle wins by KnockOut!

Total time: 53 seconds

 


Fight 3: vs. Ice Cube

My next fight with Turtle was against Team Toad's Ice Cube, driven by 12 year old Kelsie.

When we got in line to fight, Fuzzy (Kelsie's dad) told me that Kelsie was worried about fighting a veteran builder, even though it wasn't even my bot. I assured her that I was just going to have fun, and she should do the same, I wasn't there to smash her bot into smithereens, just to get out there and push around a bit and be pushed around. I explained how this was only the second time I had driven the bot, and was very unfamiliar with it, which seemed to put her at ease a bit.

The fight started with both bots rushing the center of the arena. Turtle and Ice Cube slammed together in a tremendous crash, sending Ice Cube reeling. "Whoah, this thing has some power!", I realized. Ice Cube recovered and came charging back, missing Turtle. We charged and slammed into each other a few more times, then on one particular hit, Ice Cube spun around and landed face down on the plow! Helpless, Ice Cube had no way to recover from that position, so I immediately charged Turtle into her and knocked her back down and into the game. Several more shoves and charges later, Ice Cube once again landed on it's plow! I couldn't believe it. I charged Turtle into Ice Cube again to knock her over as the time on the clock ran out.

Turtle won by judge decision 32-13

 


Fight 4: vs. Space Monkey

My next fight with Turtle was versus Space Monkey.

While in line for this fight, it became apparent that the Space Monkey team was having trouble with their bot. I explained to them the whole situation and that they should take their time and get their bot running at 100% before the fight. They agreed, and we took a brief postponement while they looked over their bot.

Once they finished, it was evident that they were still having radio problems, but they decided to fight anyway.

I don't remember exactly how it happened, but basically, the match consisted of Turtle pushing Space Monkey around a lot. Once I had realized that the Space Monkey bot was having serious radio trouble, I attempted to push their bot closer to their control square. This seemed to help a little, but Space Monkey was pretty much there for the pushing. I eventually pushed them up on the spike strip, and they had no control left of their bot. I felt terrible not being able to have it be a great fight, but here I was with yet another win for the Turtle!

Turtle wins by KO at 1 minute, 32 seconds

 


Fight 5: vs. El Diablo

Turtle's next fight took him into the TV rounds! This time, he was up against El Diablo, an awesome tracked robot with a mean spinning drum.

This match was telivised on the BattleBots TV show, and of course Comedy Central had a good time explaining how I had ended up at the controls of Turtle.

The match started great, with Turtle getting under El Diablo and slamming him hard into the wall, but things got ugly soon.It all started with a brief trip over the killsaw. Turtle's underside wasn't very well armored, and the killsaw cleanly cut through one side drive chain, disabling movement on that side. To make matters worse, any movements I made with Turtle put him closer and closer to the arena pulverizer. El Diablo, of course helped Turtle along with his spinning drum, and soonTurtle was taking a pulverizer shower... multiple blows to the shell, and all I could do with Turtle was spin around in a circle, since one side drive was shot. The match went on like this until the time ran out, and poor little Turtle sat there with his armor dented up, but still running!

El Diablo wins by judge decision 31-14

 

That's it for Turtle in Season 4.0!
In the time between Season 4.0 and 5.0, I took over ownership of Turtle, and now he's officially part of Team Nightmare!