Patriot is a

floorless roller coaster A Floorless Coaster is a type of steel roller coaster manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard where riders sit with no floor underneath them, allowing their feet to swing freely just above the track. Development of the Floorless Coaster model beg ...

located in Hometown Square at the

California's Great America California's Great America is an amusement park located in Santa Clara, California, United States. Owned and operated by Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. ...

amusement park in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The roller coaster originally opened as Vortex on March 9, 1991. It was a stand-up roller coaster designed by

Werner Stengel Werner Stengel (born 22 August 1936, in Bochum) is a German roller coaster designer and engineer. Stengel is the founder of Stengel Engineering, also known as Ingenieurbüro Stengel GmbH (or Ingenieurbuero Stengel GmbH). Stengel first worked on a ...

and manufactured by

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by engineers Walter Bolliger and Cl ...

. Vortex last operated as a stand-up coaster on September 5, 2016, and it reopened as Patriot on April 1, 2017. The ride was converted to a sit-down configuration featuring new floorless trains and a new color scheme.

History

Vortex (1991–2016)

Vortex was a stand-up roller coaster that officially opened at California's Great America on March 9, 1991. It was the second coaster from the manufacturer

following Iron Wolf, which was installed a year earlier at sister park

Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park, theme park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The theme park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built ...

. It shares a similar design with

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex (: vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

at sister park

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 ...

but features a different layout. It featured purple track with yellow rails and gray supports. The ride became rough over the years, and its last day of operation was on September 5, 2016.

Patriot (2017–present)

On August 18, 2016, the park announced Vortex would be converted to Patriot for the 2017 season, including new Bolliger & Mabillard floorless trains and a new color scheme consisting of (repainted) blue track and white supports. Although this is the first floorless coaster in the park’s 41-year history it is the second floorless conversion in the

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 ...

(now

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags ...

) chain, following Mantis turning into

Rougarou The Rougarou (, alternatively spelled as roux-ga-roux, rugaroo, or rugaru) is a legendary creature in Cajun diaspora and a tricker in oral traditions in Metis and Francophone communities linked to traditional concepts of the werewolf. Versions ...

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounc ...

back in 2015. The transformation began in September 2016 shortly after Vortex closed. The park opened on Saturday, March 25 for the 2017 season, with Patriot opening to the public the following Saturday on April 1. In celebration of the opening (and name) of the coaster, the park offered free entry to all current and past military service members through Memorial Day (May 29, 2017) weekend with up to 6 of their guests being offered discount tickets. Season pass holder previews were announced to start on March 31, 2017, a day before the official opening of the ride. When looking at the logo of the ride, it closely resembles the other one of its namesake,

Patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...

, which is located at the

Worlds of Fun Worlds of Fun is a theme park located in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Owned and operated by Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, it was founded by American businessmen Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman under the ownership of Hunt's com ...

amusement park in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, which also forms part of the Six Flags chain of amusement parks.

Ride experience

Track elements

* Loop *

Corkscrew A corkscrew is a tool for drawing Cork (plug), corks from wine bottles and other household bottles that may be sealed with corks. In its traditional form, a corkscrew simply consists of a pointed metallic helix (often called the "worm") attach ...

The coaster takes riders to a 91-foot height after which it makes an initial left hand drop into its first loop. It then executes a left turnaround to travel into another left turnaround through its loop. The train then travels to the other end of its layout into the corkscrew element and another left turnaround after which it enters into the final brake run. The course used to cross over the park train's railroad tracks by the corkscrew. The coaster's lift hill stands parallel to the footers of the former Tidal Wave looping shuttle coaster.

References

{{California's Great America California's Great America Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Roller coasters in California 1991 establishments in California Floorless Coaster roller coasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard