Volume 2, No. 7.   April 12, 2002

New Arrivals

It’s a wild mouse!
Paramount’s Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, announces the arrival of Ricochet, March 23, 2002. Measurements: 52 feet high (16 meters), 13,40 feet long (406 meters), 10 four-passenger cars. Delivered by Heinrich Mack GMBH & Company.

Having staged a large media event for 2001’s Hypersonic XL opening, Mark Riddell, Kings Dominion’s public relations manager, did not want to overdo the opening of this season’s rmuch smaller and significantly less historic new ride, albeit one that deliveres a breath-taking 50-foot drop. However, while the ride’s public opening was uneventful, Riddell chanced into an effective pre-opening publicity stunt.

Over the years Riddell has developed a friendship with some of the clowns in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus who are “huge coaster fans,” he said. When the Greatest Show On Earth came to the eastern Virginia area the first week of March, the clowns called up asking if they could visit the park. Because the park was not yet open, Riddell offered his friends a deal: get into makeup and costumes and be the first public riders on Ricochet for a photo-op. “Some of the clowns in the pictures are not really clowns. They are wives of clowns who wanted to ride but figured they had to get in clown makeup in order to ride,” Riddell said.

It was a happenstance that just fit: a wild mouse makes a perfect clown car.

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