- Hi everybody. My name's Ethan Rosman.
I have the privilege of being the Reck Driver for 2021.
And I'm gonna walk you through
a day in the life of the Reck Driver on Homecoming weekend.
(exciting music)
- [Announcer] All right, here comes our winner.
Give it up!
- The Mini 500 is a tricycle race
around Peter's Parking Deck.
It started back in the 60s
when pledges were made to ride tricycles around campus.
And then in 1969,
it became an official Georgia Tech Homecoming event
where teams of seven compete
to race around Peter's Parking Deck.
They have to complete eight laps on a tricycle
that can only be modified in a few different ways.
Every year the race is led by the Reck.
So my job is to park in front of the starting line,
and when I hear the gun go off,
I take off as fast as I can
because some of the trikes are so well engineered
they'll actually beat the Reck off the line.
It's a lot harder than you expect.
It is quite the quad workout.
The course looks like it's pretty flat,
but once you're on it,
it is very much uphill for a lot of the race.
It feels like it's been hours out here.
Once I get to Freshman Hill,
I'll turn around backwards
and it's just a quad workout to the finish.
Here we go.
(exciting music)
Feeling pretty good.
(cheers)
We started setting up the race around four in the morning,
and the Freshmen Cake Race is gonna start,
around 6:00 is check-in,
6:30 I think is the race.
So all the freshmen are waking up now,
the band is going around,
blasting them out of their beds with the fight songs,
they'll be trickling over here,
queuing up behind the start line,
and then running as fast as they can
to see who can win the cake this year.
Once again, the Reck is gonna be leading the race.
In the front of the pack are usually the fastest runners.
And once again, they're gonna be pretty tough
to beat off the line.
- [Announcer] Three, two, one!
(horn blares)
So we're off, and (inaudible).
(horn honks)
(upbeat music)
So we're getting ready to lead the Wreck Parade.
It's an awesome tradition with classic cars,
contraptions, fixed bodies,
and then a lot of different spirit elements.
The Reck for Halloween this year is dressed up as Buzz
and Buzz is dressed as the Reck.
So we're tidying up our costume here,
making sure all the clips are nice and neat.
(marching band music)
So this part's all easy 'cause we're going downhill.
So I'm just kinda on the brakes.
Once that flattens out too much to roll,
I'll have to like actually put it in first gear,
drive a little bit, put it back in neutral, and roll.
(horn honks)
- Yellow jackets!
Yes!
- We are headed to the middle of Freshmen Hill
for Yellow Jacket Alley,
which is where the players arrive.
The Reck leads a procession down the hill,
which includes the Reck,
followed by Cheer and Gold Rush,
followed by the band,
followed by all the players.
And the players entering the stadium
past the Reck and the band,
and then we zoom around to visit some tailgates.
The cool part about Yellow Jacket Alley
is hearing the drum line do their warmups.
(drum music)
So maintaining a walking pace is kind of difficult.
It's a lot of guesswork.
I think we're doing okay.
We're headed up to Harrison Square
to visit some of the tailgates up there.
Yellow Jackets!
(horn honks)
We are headed to do one final lap around tailgates,
and then we're going to the top of Freshmen Hill
for the entrance into the stadium.
The Reck got wet, and I'm gonna dry her off
which is kind of like washing.
But I usually start with all this stuff
that's shiny because that's the stuff
that gets water stained the first from the drops.
Hopefully we can get everything shiny,
go do the parade into the stadium before it rains again,
and we'll look nice and good today.
- So, every year at Homecoming,
Reck Club will shotgun a Red Bull
because we've been staying up all night planning everything.
And so we're about to go
shotgun a Red Bull in honor of that tradition.
(marching band music)
(horn honks)
- See the people in gold jackets
down there clearing this turn.
We're gonna make the turn and go right into the stadium
The second we start to make the turn,
I throw it in second gear.
Everyone in the lines is gonna run behind us.
It was all sprinted.
All right, here we go.
(horn honks)
(crowd cheers)
(horn honks)
(exciting music)
The Ride Out out is really fun,
it's a really high energy moment.
You see the cuer with a headset count you down 3, 2, 1,
and then you go and you see the flag runners with the flag,
and the fire coming out of the tunnel.
And then it looks like there's just chaos on the field.
And then a small channel opens up to the drive through,
and the next thing you know,
you're parked on the other side.
(exciting music)
(crowd cheers)
All the events this morning kind of
build the game a little bit more.
So there's a lot more anticipation for the game,
but it's really fun to get to see people
who I looked up to when I was a first year
now back, kind of cheering me on as I drive the Reck.
It's really exciting.
(exciting music)
(crowd cheers)