Volume 1, No. 6. April 20, 2001
It’s a roller coaster!
Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, announces the arrival of NITRO, April 6, 2001 (230 feet high, 5,394 feet long, 80 mph). Delivered by Bolliger & Mabillard.
If people camp out to be first in line anyway, Six Flags Great Adventure decided to make an event of it. The park invited coaster fans to camp in the picnic grove in order to earn the right to be the first to ride the park’s 12th coaster and third by B&M. The fans, 38 in all, showed up with their tents Wednesday evening and spent Thursday in various competitions to determine which row they would occupy on the Friday morning debut ride.
"I just came to have fun with my son," said Mark Karol of Fair Haven, New Jersey. Said his 7-year-old son, Kevin, of the experience, "it was cold," drawing out that last word as long as his breath allowed. But Kevin did enjoy riding NITRO, which he described as an "up-and-down" coaster.
That is as apt a description as any. Riding open-air seating with only lap bars as restraint, passengers drop 215 feet from the lift hill at a 66 degree-angle and 80 mph. Then it’s up a second 189-foot hill that crests in a hard-bank turn to the left. On the media day the following Wednesday, a cold, rainy outing, coaster enthusiasts gripped the lap bars on the second crest with as much fervor as the frightened members of the press did.
Among those caught in the ride’s thrill grip was World Wrestling Federation champion Mick Foley, AKA Mankind, AKA Cactus Jack. He officially opened the ride with a cartoonish detonator that set off sparklers and fireworks around the NITRO entrance, then led the press and enthusiasts onto the official first ride with his two children, Dewey, 9, and Noelle, 7.
"In descending order, I was the most afraid, then (Dewey), then her," Foley said, pointing to his daughter who barely met the 54-inch height restriction. "I’m the bravest," Noelle said proudly. Asked what part scared him most, Dewey replied, "Going up." The biggest scare for the 35-year-old Foley: "Going down."
©2001, Minton Enterprises LLC
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