Dragster to highlight 2004 season

Tuesday, 02 December 2003

Top Thrill Dragster will anchor Cedar Point's 2004 marketing campaign, according to John Hildebrandt, the park's Vice President of Marketing, the Sandusky Register reported. Cedar Point will also highlight Millennium Force next year.

"We don't think its full impact was realized in 2003 and our job is to remind guests that Top Thrill Dragster is ready and waiting for them," Hildebrandt told the Register.

Hildebrandt added that the park would have highlighted Top Thrill Dragster next season even if there had not been problems in 2003.

After a rough start in 2003, Top Thrill Dragster will run consistently next season.

"I have a really good feeling about the ride now," Monty Jasper, Cedar Point's Vice President of Maintenance, told the Register.

The $25 million strata-coaster has been going through routine winterization and maintenance. The mechanical issues that caused the intermittent downtime through the first part of the season were resolved in August. The coaster ran consistently in August, September and October.

The first major issue with Top Thrill Dragster was on May 26, when a cable that attaches the coaster's cars to each other and to the structure separated.

Jasper told the Register that the steel cable bent during preseason testing, but the park thought it was fixed. Because a second cable was overworked when the damaged cable separated, workers replaced two of the three cables on the ride.

In early June, problems developed with the coaster's prototype hydraulics system. Cedar Point and Intamin discovered the ride's oil was contaminated with small pieces of steel and copper, which were getting stuck in the ride's valves.

It took workers a month to find and correct the source of the contamination. Jasper told the Register that the catch car was being brought back to the launch slowly, while the hydraulic oil was moving quickly. This caused air to get into the system and tear off small pieces of the motor. The solution was to bring the catch car back at a faster speed.

The problems did not end there, however.

"It was a cascade failure," Jasper explained to the Register. "When one part of the ride failed, another failed."

The next issue was heat related. The catch car was getting too hot and was affecting braking on the ride. To solve that problem, the park used hoses to cool the catch car with water. The catch car is currently in Germany where engineers will attempt to use heat magnets to prevent overheating.

Cedar Point's cost remains at $25 million because Intamin picked up the cost of the repairs.

In 2004, Jasper's goal is to give at least 10,000 rides per day on Top Thrill Dragster, a number that was reached at times in 2003. He also told the Register that he wants the ride to be open for CoasterMania 2004, something that did not happen in 2003.

"I think that's one reason Top Thrill Dragster got ranked 11th [in the Golden Ticket Awards]," Jasper said.