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Racer 75

Kings Dominion · Operating · 1975

Racer 75

85 ft · 50 mph

Photo: See Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Racer 75 opened with Kings Dominion on May 3, 1975 as Rebel Yell, twin 92-foot wooden racing tracks designed by John C. Allen for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. A June 1977 marathon-riding event on the coaster — held to promote the film Rollercoaster, which used the ride as a filming location — is credited with inspiring the founding of the American Coaster Enthusiasts club in 1978. Kings Dominion renamed the ride Racer 75 in 2018, moving away from its Confederate-era name while nodding to both its 1975 opening and its role in ACE history; the club had already designated it a Roller Coaster Landmark in 2003.

Specifications

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Ride profile

Scaled against Kings Dominion's operating coasters

Wood

Height

85 ft

#7 of 12 at Kings Dominion

Height85 ft
Speed50 mph
Length3,200 ft
InversionsNone

Ride experience

  • Racing
  • Ptc
  • Wood

Specs from sixflags.com

History

Sourced timeline and background for Racer 75.

Timeline

  1. 1975

    Opens as Rebel Yell

    John C. Allen designs twin 92-foot wooden racing tracks for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, one of fifteen attractions running on Kings Dominion's opening day; the name reportedly honored a brand of bourbon rather than any Confederate reference.

    Source

  2. 1977

    ACE-founding marathon ride

    A marathon riding event held on the coaster to promote the film Rollercoaster — which used the ride as a filming location — sparks conversations among riders that lead to the founding of American Coaster Enthusiasts in 1978.

    Source

  3. 1992

    One side reversed

    Kings Dominion reverses one track to run backward, echoing a similar change made at Kings Island's Racer a decade earlier.

    Source

  4. 2008

    Both tracks restored to forward-running

    Cedar Fair restores forward operation on both sides after its purchase of the Paramount Parks chain.

    Source

  5. 2003

    ACE Roller Coaster Landmark

    American Coaster Enthusiasts designates the ride a Roller Coaster Landmark, citing its role in the club's own founding.

    Source

  6. 2018

    Renamed Racer 75

    Kings Dominion retires the Rebel Yell name amid statewide debate over Confederate symbols, rebranding the ride as a nod to its 1975 opening, its racing design, and — via the wordplay 'rACEr 75' — the American Coaster Enthusiasts club it helped inspire.

    Source

Background

Kings Dominion opened on May 3, 1975 with fifteen attractions, and the twin-tracked wooden racer designed by John C. Allen for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company was one of its headliners. The park's first vice president of finance, Jim Copp, is credited with naming it Rebel Yell — reportedly after a brand of bourbon rather than any deliberate Confederate reference, though the name's obvious double meaning would eventually catch up with it.

The ride's twin 92-foot tracks and dueling trains made it a natural fit for Hollywood: Universal's 1977 thriller Rollercoaster used the coaster as a central set piece, and a marathon riding event held that June to promote the film brought together several early coaster enthusiasts whose conversations there are credited with leading to the founding of the American Coaster Enthusiasts club in 1978 — a lineage ACE itself formally recognized by naming the ride a Roller Coaster Landmark in 2003. In 1992, Kings Dominion reversed one of the two tracks to run backward, a novelty locals nicknamed the "Yell Rebel" that lasted until Cedar Fair restored forward-running operation on both sides in 2008.

By the mid-2010s, Virginia was in the middle of a statewide reckoning over Confederate symbols, intensified by the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in nearby Charlottesville. In February 2018, Kings Dominion announced it would retire the Rebel Yell name, rebranding the coaster as Racer 75 — a name the park explicitly tied to its 1975 opening, its racing-style layout, and a "rACEr 75" wordplay honoring the American Coaster Enthusiasts club the ride had helped inspire four decades earlier, without directly commenting on the Confederate-name controversy.

Racer 75 has reportedly given more rides than any other attraction in park history, and more than fifty years after its debut it remains Old Virginia's most enduring wooden coaster, still running the same dueling-train format that opened the park.

History primarily sourced from sixflags.com. See also our data policy.

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