Racer 2019?

[JCoaster25]

That's the thing. Racer has potential to be a GREAT intermediate thrill coaster if it ran smooth and fast through the whole ride. Probably the most underrated moment of airtime in the entire park is the bunny hill that comes just before the turnaround. If the lap bar hasn't stapled me in by that point, I always fly out of my seat when we hit that hill. Unfortunately the trim on the turnaround basically zaps all the excitement out of the rest of the ride, which feels rough and pretty lethargic.

If KI could make this ride totally smooth (through M&V, or GCI, or RMC topper track etc.), remove the trim, repaint it with the red track and blue handrails, add LED chasers through the whole course, and bought a fresh set of 3-bench PTCs with no headrests (see Thunderhawk at Dorney), the ride would honestly become a top 5 coaster in the park for me. I'd love to see all of that happen.

[BlondyRidesOn]

Robb Decker was seen walking along the ride recently. Was he involved in Knott's Ghostrider renovation a few years back?

[Skibum]

For my friend and I, we can't ride this coaster unless we're in a middle seat on the car.  It's simply too rough to enjoy for us.  Retracking or topper track is about the only thing that could help it right now.  One thing I hadn't noticed was how much the trim brake at the start of the turnaround impacts the right side.  It really grabs you and lets the left side pass you up.  

[JCoaster25]

For anyone who did The Racer BTS tour today, did you happen to catch any new info on Racer for 2019? Other than just general upkeep and maintenance?

[sixohdieselrage]

@JCoaster25 Don said there is nothing in the plans soon for a "refurbushment".  Those weren't the exact words, but along the lines of that. IIRC, some took a video while he was talking about it.

 

If they bought the paint, I know myself and several others there today would have been happy to paint it for free.

[SonofBaconator]

I honestly wouldn't mind this.

[super7]

King's Dominion's Racer and Thunder Road is/was a superior model to King's Islands Racer.   King's Island's has that stupid split at the turn arounds where the other train is a football field away.  Racer 75 and Thunder Road keep the trains side by side longer before the turn around.  KI Racer looses the feeling of racing at that point.  The ultimate retrackign would make the turn arounds come together into a deulling turn around (like Lightning Racer), but that probably will not happen.

[mayaman2]

On 10/22/2018 at 4:49 PM, super7 said:

King's Dominion's Racer and Thunder Road is/was a superior model to King's Islands Racer.   King's Island's has that stupid split at the turn arounds where the other train is a football field away.  Racer 75 and Thunder Road keep the trains side by side longer before the turn around.  KI Racer looses the feeling of racing at that point.  The ultimate retrackign would make the turn arounds come together into a deulling turn around (like Lightning Racer), but that probably will not happen.

That's not a retrack, that's a redesign. And a very large renovation at that.

[scoriell]

On 10/22/2018 at 4:49 PM, super7 said:

King's Dominion's Racer and Thunder Road is/was a superior model to King's Islands Racer.   King's Island's has that stupid split at the turn arounds where the other train is a football field away.  Racer 75 and Thunder Road keep the trains side by side longer before the turn around.  KI Racer looses the feeling of racing at that point.  The ultimate retrackign would make the turn arounds come together into a deulling turn around (like Lightning Racer), but that probably will not happen.

How dare you question John Allen's grand design 

[NewD4y20]

Think they will want to restore Racer if they plan to put a new coaster where Firehawk was.

[canobie#1]

Gotta say, I'll take Rebel Yell over KI Racer any day.  People have said they spotted re-tracking on the ride but when I went for winterfest a couple weeks ago, I couldn't see anything.  KD did a great job retracking rebel yell and now it runs glass smooth.  I hope KI starts to focus on a full restoration project for the attraction.  

[sixohdieselrage]

I feel like Racer will recieve some love soon, since they bothered to give the lift hill a "lighting package" for WinterFest. 

 

I certainly hope so at least. Easily the most iconic ride at the park (save the Grand Carousel) and it's looking a little rough. 

 

[rhyano]

I'm actually quite opposite with Racer vs Rebel Yell/Racer 75. I prefer Racer by a bit, it seems like The Gravity Group smoothed over any moments to get airtime, at least when I rode it last month, Racer still has some airtime, but it's a bit rougher, so there is a trade off. I think Thunder Road was the best of all of them, it gave great airtime and was very smooth a month before it closed. 

[canobie#1]

6 minutes ago, rhyano said:

I'm actually quite opposite with Racer vs Rebel Yell/Racer 75. I prefer Racer by a bit, it seems like The Gravity Group smoothed over any moments to get airtime, at least when I rode it last month, Racer still has some airtime, but it's a bit rougher, so there is a trade off. I think Thunder Road was the best of all of them, it gave great airtime and was very smooth a month before it closed. 

Rebel Yell ran great when I was there in March and then again in June.  I like Racer but the ride has not seen enough upkeep to maintain high ridership numbers.  Whereas Rebel has seen a big ridership increase this year. 

[L24]

On 7/30/2018 at 5:08 AM, FoF96" said:

I haven’t been there in two years, so not sure how it’s doing now.   when it first reopened, it was every bit as smooth as Mystic imo.

I rode Thunder Run for the first time in September. Going in I didn't read much about Kentucky Kingdom's rides prior to visiting for my first time and didn't know what to expect for Thunder Run. I was pleasantly surprised that the smoothness was comparable to Mystic. Then, I later found out about the RMC retrack.  

 

Does anyone else know of any coasters that have gotten traditional retracks from RMC other than Thunder Run? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

[rhyano]

1 hour ago, L24 said:

I rode Thunder Run for the first time in September. Going in I didn't read much about Kentucky Kingdom's rides prior to visiting for my first time and didn't know what to expect for Thunder Run. I was pleasantly surprised that the smoothness was comparable to Mystic. Then, I later found out about the RMC retrack.  

 

Does anyone else know of any coasters that have gotten traditional retracks from RMC other than Thunder Run? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Thunder Run was retracked by Amuse this past year, they've done work at Mount Olympus this off season, and they did Apocalypse's last major refurbishment at Six Flags Magic Mountain. 

[teenageninja]

3 hours ago, sixohdieselrage said:

I feel like Racer will recieve some love soon, since they bothered to give the lift hill a "lighting package" for WinterFest. 

 

I certainly hope so at least. Easily the most iconic ride at the park (save the Grand Carousel) and it's looking a little rough. 

 

Spent so much time putting up lights and didn't even bring down the Firehawk sign?

[calakapepe]

4 hours ago, canobie#1 said:

Gotta say, I'll take Rebel Yell over KI Racer any day.  People have said they spotted re-tracking on the ride but when I went for winterfest a couple weeks ago, I couldn't see anything.  KD did a great job retracking rebel yell and now it runs glass smooth.  I hope KI starts to focus on a full restoration project for the attraction.  

It's true. As of May 2018. Rebel... Wait.. Racer75 runs very smoothly. I will say the airtime was quite lacking compared to our Racer.. But most people, not I, complain about the roughness.. Racer75 was as smooth as Mystic Timbers 2017

[SonofBaconator]

I'm sure the park will want to have it worked on in time for their 50th anniversary, which is also The Racer's 50th year in operation

[Troyohchatter]

On 7/30/2018 at 2:13 PM, BeeastFarmer said:

They have completely retracked sections of the ride over the last two off seasons--taken off all the layers and even replaced ledgers.  I don't know who did the work, though.  The new train, in  my opinion subtracts from the ride experience.  It's much too tight.  I can understand why though, because even with the smaller seat size, there are points on the ride where I am in a half way standing position.  It's still smooth.  On the lift hill, though, it shuffles quite a bit.  It feels like the train is lifting off the track a few inches.

 

All that to say...I hope The Racer gets some much needed attention.  It's a painful ride for me.  It looks terrible.  

And I want the Coney Mall sign back. 

 

I will tell you one thing.  I hadn't been to KI in forever and we just went this year.  I am 5'11" and go about 240.  There are parts of me that are bigger than they used to be.  I have a 38 to 40 inch waist.  My arse wouldn't fit in the seat due to the center separation thing.  I was quite disappointed.  I am all for the seat belts if they must., but the cars are just too tight side to side.   When my 12 year old 100lb soaking wet daughter is touching both hips to cushion, you know you may need to rethink the fit of the seats.

[flightoffear1996]

I noticed this on The Racer seats that they angle you inwards. I have no problems fitting but riding tilted inwards feels very awkward to me.  

[BeeastFarmer]

In my opinion, the newly retracked turn around on the blue side, while not jerky, was rough. Almost like the wheels were hitting the bolts instead of the steel.

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[IndyGuy4KI]

4 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

In my opinion, the newly retracked turn around on the blue side, while not jerky, was rough. Almost like the wheels were hitting the bolts instead of the steel.

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I thought there was an issue with it on Friday evening when I rode it. It does not seem to ride now how it did on opening day. It is like there is way more friction going on now. With Jeff G talking about using a harder wood on it at the CoasterStock lunch, I wonder if that is a contributing factor?

[silver2005]

I've been on a few other wood coasters recently that had small amounts of recent re-tracking at the time I rode them that had that vibrating noise at those sections (Shivering Timbers and Legend), but I imagine there was more of a physical vibration earlier in the season because I got to both later those respective summers and those portions were fine.  Maybe give Racer's re-tracking a chance to break in?

[BeeastFarmer]

I thought there was an issue with it on Friday evening when I rode it. It does not seem to ride now how it did on opening day. It is like there is way more friction going on now. With Jeff G talking about using a harder wood on it at the CoasterStock lunch, I wonder if that is a contributing factor?

I had the same impression when I rode it the Friday after opening weekend. I'm assuming that GCI used Ipe wood on Mystic Timbers and the retracked Blue Racer turn around. But totally different execution.

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[Nonamekate]

I've only rode the red train this year and I was expecting the usual, painful ride but I noticed improvement. That being said, The Racer has been neglected. The GP has no idea how much history is tied to that coaster, I'd love to see them give it a facelift, including some new paint and maybe a little theming like 1970s style? Or Racing, given the name.

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[Logan]

On 5/22/2019 at 9:26 PM, Nonamekate said:

I've only rode the red train this year and I was expecting the usual, painful ride but I noticed improvement. That being said, The Racer has been neglected. The GP has no idea how much history is tied to that coaster, I'd love to see them give it a facelift, including some new paint and maybe a little theming like 1970s style? Or Racing, given the name.

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A fresh coat of paint with red accents would be welcome. Give it a GCI retrack as well and brand it as a rebirth of an old classic. They might be able to put Millennium Flyers on it too, though I'm not sure that would go over too well.

[ldhudsonjr]

I've been wondering why every time I go to the park on a day that's not busy (which is what I usually try to do) they're only running the Red train. On opening day I had a ride on the Blue train and the work they did REALLY shows. Its a much more enjoyable ride than the Red side, yet if they're running one train it's always red. Why go through all the trouble and then have guests riding the crappier side most of the days the park operates?

[Logan]

7 hours ago, ldhudsonjr said:

I've been wondering why every time I go to the park on a day that's not busy (which is what I usually try to do) they're only running the Red train. On opening day I had a ride on the Blue train and the work they did REALLY shows. Its a much more enjoyable ride than the Red side, yet if they're running one train it's always red. Why go through all the trouble and then have guests riding the crappier side most of the days the park operates?

It's less expensive to operate only one side if there's no need to run two. It also takes less staff and keeps the other side from getting wear and tear.

[ldhudsonjr]

1 hour ago, Logan said:

It's less expensive to operate only one side if there's no need to run two. It also takes less staff and keeps the other side from getting wear and tear.

That's not the part I have trouble understanding. I'm wondering why they don't run the Blue instead of the Red since IIRC they just did some re-tracking work on it. It certainly feels that way at least.