Thunder Road was a

wooden roller coaster A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also be ...

located at

Carowinds Carowinds is a amusement park primarily located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park is owned and operated by Six Flags. Carowinds straddles the state line between North and South Carolina, adjacent to Interstate 77, with a portion of the park ...

amusement park on the border between

Fort Mill, South Carolina Fort Mill, also known as Fort Mill Township, is a town in York County, South Carolina, United States. It is a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 24,521. Some businesses and residents in th ...

, and

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. Opened in 1976 and built by

Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) is one of the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing companies in the world. Based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, it was established in 1904 by Henry B. Auchy and Chester Albright under the name Philadelph ...

, the

racing roller coaster A dual-tracked roller coaster is a roller coaster that consists of two tracks. They can be configured as racing, dueling, or Möbius loop roller coasters. Some dual-track coasters operate only one track side at a time, including Rolling Thunde ...

cost $1.6 million to construct and featured two identical tracks that paralleled each other. The design of the ride was based on Rebel Yell (now

Racer 75 Racer 75 is a wooden racing roller coaster at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Designed by John C. Allen, the ride opened with the park in 1975 as Rebel Yell. It features a similar track layout to The Racer (1972) at Kings Island and the no ...

), a wooden racing coaster at

Kings Dominion Kings Dominion is an amusement park in Doswell, Virginia, United States, north of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond and south of Washington, D.C. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park opened to the public on May 3, 1975, featuring over 60 rid ...

Doswell, Virginia Doswell is an unincorporated community in Hanover County in the Central Region of the U.S. state of Virginia. Originally called Hanover Junction, it was located on the Virginia Central Railroad (later, part of the C&O) at a crossing of the ...

. Thunder Road was closed on July 26, 2015, to make room for expansion at the park. On August 27, 2015,

announced that the Boomerang Bay waterpark would be expanded and renamed Carolina Harbor. The expansion resulted in the removal of Thunder Road.

History

Construction and opening

Carowinds unveiled plans for a $2 million expansion on January 22, 1975, at a press conference. The expansion would include a new roller coaster and renovation to increase ride capacity, provide a new dynamite live entertainment package and help with the food quality. Ride capacity was to be boosted by 25% through the $750,000 addition in new rides and the relocation of the existing attractions. There would also be a

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

set to open in 1976. In February 1976, Carowinds announced that the ride would be named Thunder Road. It was named and originally themed after the 1958 movie, '' Thunder Road''. The attraction officially opened to the public on April 3, 1976.

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

celebrities

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (December 3, 1937 – November 9, 2024) was an American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant ...

and

David Pearson David or Dave Pearson may refer to: * David Pearson (librarian) (born 1955), British librarian and scholar * David Pearson (racing driver) (1934–2018), American car racing champion * David Pearson (geologist) (born 1942), Canadian scientist, acad ...

, along with major newspapers from around the country, were at Carowinds for the grand opening. Thunder Road was originally painted red, white, and blue. Two moonshine stills were originally placed at the entrance but have since been removed.

Operation

The ride originally featured trains from the

Jetstream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents in the Earth's atmosphere. The main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds, flowing west to east around the globe. The northern hemisphere and th ...

, a roller coaster at Chicago's defunct Riverview Park. For use on Thunder Road, the trains were themed to resemble a Sheriff's car and an Outlaw's car to fit the coaster's original theme. The Riverview trains were retired in 1980 and replaced with new, higher-capacity

trains the next year. Thunder Road's trains all faced forward until one side was reversed in 1995 to run backwards. During the 1995-1996 off-season, the air conditioners and decorative memorabilia in the waiting area were removed. The ride got a new entrance sign in 1996 with the "Fast as Lighting" slogan. In 2008, all trains were turned to face forward once again. Portions of the track were also refurbished in 2008 and 2009.

Closure

Starting in 2015, Carowinds was planning a $50 million expansion. The expansion included

Fury 325 Fury 325 is a steel roller coaster located at Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Manufactured by , Fury 325 opened as the world's tallest giga coaster on March 28, 2015. It features of track and a maximum hei ...

, new entrances,

SlingShot A slingshot or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two tubes or strips made from either a natural rubber or synthetic elastic material. These are attached to the upper two ends ...

and other new investments. Officials were also looking to expand the water park the following year. In order for this to happen, Thunder Road would have to close down. On May 23, 2015, the park announced that Thunder Road would be closed permanently. Severely negative backlash followed the announcement and a group had signed 2,400 signatures that doubled the immediate goal to save the ride. Organizers of the petition were hoping for a change. The final day of Thunder Road took place July 26, 2015 with a farewell celebration. The first 100 riders would receive a free commemorative Thunder Road poster and button. Fans created a tribute video by sharing their favorite Thunder Road memories. Submitting pictures also entered them into a random drawing from exclusive Thunder Road memorabilia. The winner prizes included a ride on the last train, free tickets and wooden pieces from the ride. By August, Thunder Road was swiftly demolished.

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, or simply Cedar Fair, was an American company headquartered at its flagship Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The company was a publicly traded master limited partnership that origina ...

donated the ride's components to The Racer at

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was built by Taft Broadcasting and opened in 1972. It was part of a larger effort to move and expand Coney Islan ...

and

. Tributes to Thunder Road can be found in the Blue Ridge Junction section. There is a poster in the Blue Ridge Country Kitchen restaurant that says Thunder Road Dragway. The poster has a list of numerous sponsors. One tagline from the ride is "Grit Your Teeth", which was the sign riders saw while ascending the lift hill. The others are "Bear The Load" and "Enjoy your ride on Thunder Road". Plus, the station of Copperhead Strike contains a Centurion Motor Oil mural that pays tribute to Thunder Road and White Lightnin'. Thunder Striker also pays homage to the defunct coaster.

Ride layout

Thunder Road featured a doubled layout with twin trains that ran simultaneously, each on one of the two separate, mirrored tracks. As the trains left the station, they embarked on a gentle downward turn in opposite directions that went out under the brake run. Both tracks met back up to ascend the

chain lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from ...

. As the trains climbed side-by-side, riders passed five sequential signs posted between the two tracks that together read: "Grit your teeth / Bear the load / Enjoy your ride / On Thunder Road /

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." The trains "raced" down the initial drop of and over several medium-sized

air-time In the context of amusement rides, air time, or airtime, refers to the time during which riders of a rollercoaster or other ride experience either frictionless or G-force, negative G-forces. The negative g-forces that a rider experiences is what ...

hills before entering the turnaround section of the track farthest from the station. There the tracks diverged outward, and each train circled back independently toward the station, traveling across more small air-time hills and into the final tunnel-covered hill. Exiting the tunnel, the tracks converged again at last as they reached the final brake run back into the station. From 1996, on the 20th anniversary of the opening, until 2008, one of the tracks had the coaster cars facing backwards.

Incidents

On July 25, 1979, a malfunction brought a coaster train to a sudden halt when the wheels became slightly dislodged. The train stopped abruptly on the tracks approximately above ground. A total of 27 passengers were lowered to the ground by a lift from the back of a truck. The coaster's track was damaged, but there were no injuries reported. A park spokesperson later referred to the incident as a "freak occurrence". On April 5, 1999, a train collided with another, leaving seven people injured. Sensors on the ride were then replaced, opening the ride again.

Construction data

* of treated wood *60-70 tons of nails, bolts, and track * of paint (most parts with paint have been replaced)

References

External links

Thunder Road at "Carowinds: The Early Years"
{{Carowinds Former roller coasters in South Carolina Roller coasters operated by Cedar Fair Carowinds