The 2000s
The year 2000 itself didn’t bring any new major attractions to the park, which was quite a disappointment at the time, however TGA slowly started to hype up the next year’s addition…which they said was really going to blow people’s minds and change the face of TGA forever…
But first….a little bit of backstory…
Not even a full month had passed since Rage was announced in 1998 that Jason Walker was already looking to the future…Jason Walker had a vision to one day build a hypercoaster at the park. (A hypercoaster, of course being a coaster at least 200 feet tall and with a 200 foot tall drop) At first, he had planned to debut a B&M hypercoaster similar to Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure at the park. But then after Jason Walker realized the market demand for a second, more modern wooden coaster at the park, he decided to be a bit more ambitious….the idea came to him around the beginning of 1999 (While Rage was still under construction, mind you) that Tennesee’s Great America should in the next three years, become home to the world’s tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster and that unlike most roller coasters who have an outside designer like Steve Okamoto or Werner Stengel, Jason Walker himself was going to design this coaster. The project was tentatively titled “Roar” and was going to feature a layout that was pretty much a wooden version of Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point. The concept coaster was going to be 205 feet tall, feature a 200 foot drop, and have an approximate top speed of 74 miles per hour. However, after discovering that “Roar” was already trademarked by Cedar Fair’s rival, Six Flags, he then swiftly changed it to “Rampage”
However in May of 1999, Paramount’s Kings Island announced Son of Beast, a massive record smashing wooden coaster that reaches a top height of 218 feet, has a 215 foot drop, reaches a top speed of 78mph, and will also feature the first inversion on a wooden coaster in more than 80 years. Needless to say, Jason Walker was absolutely furious when Son of Beast was announced. He publicly accused Paramount Parks of stealing his idea for a wooden hypercoaster and even went as far as to threaten them with a lawsuit.
However, after being dissuaded from taking legal action, Jason Walker was now a man on a mission to outdo Paramount’s Kings Island. The original design was scrapped and he came up with a new design that didn't have a loop, but instead reached a height of 230 feet, had a massive first drop of 225 feet, and reached a calculated top speed of a whopping 83 miles per hour. The coaster also featured a more compact L-shaped “triple out and back” layout which included a large polystyrene mountain similar to the one at Paramount’s Kings Dominion which would enclose the first major turnaround on the coaster, a mid-course brake run, and several airtime hills in an “oval section” before the final brake run.
And in 2001,
Rampage became a reality! After having ample difficulty finding a manufacturer for the project, as RCCA and CCI were both having financial issues, GCI refused the project as it was too large of an undertaking, and Intamin couldn’t guarantee a spring 2001 opening, the project was finally handed over to a surprising manufacturer for woodies, Vekoma. Vekoma had already built three wooden roller coasters in Europe the year prior and had no qualms about bringing the model to the States. To date, Rampage was actually the first and as of 2019, only hypercoaster ever designed by Vekoma.
However, once Rampage was open to the public, reviews for the ride were mixed at best….The coaster was praised for it’s massive, ostentatious first drop of 225 feet, it’s exhilirating high top speed of 83mph, and for it’s large camelback right after the MCBR that delivered some impressive floater airtime, however right off the starting gun, complaints had arisen about the ride’s roughness, especially in the enclosed turnaround section. Another huge complaint came from the fact that right before the ride’s oval section, trim brakes had to be installed due to the very high lateral G-forces during the initial testing phase. This meant that the train crawled throughout the entire section, delivering negligible airtime traversing the small bunny hills and the double down and having such little momentum towards the final turn that a final brake run was almost unneeded.
Then…the controversies arose. Reportedly, not even a few months after it opened, parkgoers became very concerned at the way the track and supports would bend and sway while the train traversed through the course…And eventually, the ride needed to be closed for a few weeks after a number of park guests reportedly saw “metal objects” falling off the ride’s structure. Inspectors found that a number of rivets holding the structure together had been insufficiently tightened, and of course a blame game started between Jason Walker, the man who designed the coaster and Vekoma, the manufacturer of the coaster. Walker claiming that Vekoma was rushing the project while Vekoma claimed that they were being rushed by Walker to have the coaster open by 2001. Eventually the ride was fixed and was able to continue operating…
Then, in August of 2001, it was announced that Super Looper was being put up for sale and that it would be dismantled at the end of the 2001 season. This very much upset longtime parkgoers that regarded Super Looper as a classic attraction, being the first looping coaster in the southern US.
What happened to Super Looper after it was removed from the park?
It remained in storage at the park for a year until it was purchased by rival amusement corporation Six Flags, where it was initially going to be built at Six Flags Fiesta Texas to replace Joker’s Revenge. However plans for that fell through and it was then swapped between Six Flags America and Six Flags New England for the next few years until Six Flags decided to sell the ride.
Eventually, Super Looper found a new home at a small boardwalk amusement in Jacksonville, Florida named Family Land Florida in 2006. Family Land Florida is home to many thrilling flat rides, an S&S Space Shot ride, and two roller coasters. A Pinfari Wacky Worm by the name of “Tiki Coaster”, and an unusual family coaster built by Giovanola named “Coast-to-Coaster”. Looking for a new “thrilling” coaster, the family that owned the park bought Super Looper and constructed it at the boardwalk park under the it’s new name
Python.
Around the holiday season of 2001, it was announced that TGA was to receive not one, but two new attractions for 2002, even starting an advertising campaign on the official website named “2 for 2002”.
The first of these attractions was a new thrill ride, a Chance Rides Revolution by the name “Revolution”…
And, the new coaster to take Super Looper’s place, a brand new Intamin inverted impulse coaster named
Venom. While Venom was a cloned attraction, it turned out to be a very popular attraction among parkgoers as it was the very first launch coaster to be built at the park!
2003 brought a long missing attraction to the park. A heavily themed Intamin river rapids ride named “The Lost Temple” guaranteed to soak its riders every time! It was the perfect ride for those hot summer days when the Tennessee sun can become quite oppressive…
After 2003, the three season streak of adding new attractions had ended. 2004 and 2005 went by without any sort of new additions to the park at all…In fact, in 2005 the park had removed Vertigo, the upcharge slingshot ride due to lack of ridership. In September of that same year, it was surprisingly announced that Twister, the Vekoma Boomerang was also going to close forever. This however, turned out to have been an inaccurate and poorly worded announcement in the sense that the coaster was in fact NOT closing, just undergoing a “major refurbishment before the 2006 season.
The “refurbishment” was the addition of a brand new Vekoma built train to replace Fireball’s old third train that had been used on the coaster for years. The ride also underwent a name change from Twister to Hang-Time and received a snazzy new magenta and black paint job! These new refurbishments were well received and the ride was noticeably much smoother.
In that same year, an absolutely MASSIVE plot of land was cleared around where Vertigo once stood, with a Greco-Roman themed fence surrounding the entire area. And then in August, a piece of black Intamin style track appeared onsite and the coaster community collectively lost their minds….TGA was getting another Intamin for 2006….Speculation was abound at that point. Was it going to be a looping coaster like Thorpe Park’s Colossus? Or maybe a megacoaster like Expedition Ge Force? Or maybe something entirely different….
Then, it was announced….
Hercules: The Revenge, a brand new Intamin LSM launched steel coaster based off of the re-imagined Greco Roman legend of The Twelve Labors of Hercules. After being defeated by the Hydra in 2005, Hercules has made his triumphant return, this time instead of a rough woodie, as an exhilarating launched steel coaster, and is this coaster a sight to behold! Not just one, but THREE launches in its course! The first one out of the station is a rolling gradual launch to 35mph which is enough momentum for a helix and a few banked turns….However, the second launch is where the REAL ride begins. 35 to 75mph in just 2.5 seconds! After this, the train crests a 152 foot tall top hat element and down a 138 foot tall drop, giving absolutely UNREAL ejector airtime. The train proceeds to blaze through multiple back-to-back banked turns and overbanks to make you feel like you’re on the end of a bullwhip, especially in the back seat. Afterwards…the train hits a brake run and comes to a halt….but the ride isn’t over yet…After a few seconds of waiting…the train launches you without warning from 0 to 58mph through a Roman arch! During this launch, four flash pots activate, causing a burst of flames to erupt from the sides of the arch! After the third launch, the train goes into what is known as a “BayernKurve”, which is just two back to back overbanked horseshoe curves and straight downwards into an underground cavern, completely in the dark! The train then emerges out of the cave and into the ride’s grand finale, a large heartline roll charmingly named a “Roman Roll” before hitting the final brake run. The name comes from the fact that instead of normal coaster supports, concrete replicas of roman columns were used to support the track.
When Hercules: The Revenge opened in spring of 2007, it was instantaneously lauded for its high speed, excellent theming, strong layout, and of course, it’s airtime! Some had even said that Hercules The Revenge was a contender for the greatest roller coaster in the world!
However…just shortly after Hercules: The Revenge opened to the public, the park would once again face a fatal tragedy. One that would once again, spark massive amounts of controversy about an already controversial attraction…..
Around noon of June 29th,2007. Train 2 of Rampage had failed to make it to the mid-course brake run. At first it was assumed that the train valleyed, however the truth was far, far worse…Inside the mountain turnaround, the train hit broken track and a wheel careened off the front car….The front car suddenly jackknifed and T-Boned, causing the other four cars to break off the track. When rescue workers found the decimated train, they were shocked at what they saw, likening it more to a massive highway pileup than a coaster derailment. Many of the riders on board received serious injuries, including five people who were in critical condition….Unfortunately, one of the passengers who was in critical condition was a hemophiliac…..And he unfortunately passed away in the hospital just hours later of severe blood loss.
Of course, after this tragedy, all fingers once again pointed at Jason Walker, who was now being publicly accused of rushing construction of Rampage in an arbitrary attempt to show off to Kings Island. And that now, a person was dead and many more were injured due to his gross negligence of safety regulations and quality control. Walker had attempted once again, to blame Vekoma for using “sub par, cheap lumber” for their wooden coasters and even directly insulted the company’s reputation by saying “No wonder Robin Hood and Loup-Garou are so rough.” This time, the coaster community did not buy that as an excuse and saw Walker’s attacks on Vekoma as a way to divert criticism away from him, the man who designed the coaster.
Eventually, this controversy ended in Jason Walker being ousted from his position as GM of the park by Cedar Fair where he proceeded to be slapped with a hefty wrongful death lawsuit by the deceased's family.
The park reopened a week after the 4th of July of 2007, sans Rampage, which was understandably put into Standing But Not Operating or SBNO mode for the rest of the 2007 season. Speculation arose about the possible removal of the ride, given it’s tumultuous history and troubled safety record…
However in the end, The new GM of Tennesee’s Great America, C.J Lorenzo decided instead to refurbish the coaster and reopen it in 2008. He called upon Great Coasters International to help work on retracking the entire mountain tunnel, the rough sections of track, beefing up the support structure, and giving the coaster three new Millennium Flyer trains. However, as they were retracking the ride, GCI found that the main cause of the track problems with the coaster was the unprecedented amount of stress that the 225 foot tall drop was putting on the trains. If left unchecked, this wear and tear could cause even more problems in the near future….The only option was to shorten the first drop from 225 to 155 feet….thus stripping Rampage of its hypercoaster status…..As a result, the top speed of the coaster was slowed from 83 to 67mph.
However, despite the disappointment of the shortened first drop, parkgoers were pleasantly surprised at how much smoother the coaster was now that it was retracked and had new trains. And as an added bonus, the trim brakes were completely deactivated during the second half of the ride, giving Rampage the intense ejector airtime during the second half that was sorely sought after.
Around 2009, a rumor started that Fireball was going to be removed at the end of the 2008 season to make room for a new “major addition” in 2010. However park officials stepped in and said that the rumors were false.
A classic ride did end up biting the dust after the 2009 season though….Due to high maintenance costs, Round-Up bit the dust….
Soon enough, it was going to be replaced by not just a new flat ride, but an entire new area known as the River District, featuring multiple shops, a long overdue HUSS Pirate Ship ride, a Moser Rides Muzik Expres, and a huge, beautiful pier across Elmwood Lake giving parkgoers gorgeous views of both of the big A-List coasters of TGA, Hercules: The Revenge and Vampyre.
But not even a month after the River District was announced…On September 13th, 2009….Coaster enthusiasts around the world were greeted with possibly some of the most heartbreaking announcements possible…..
As it was confirmed that Vampyre would permanently close and be demolished after the 2010 season to make room for “future developments”…..
