The Racer

Kings Island opened in 1972 needing a signature ride to replace Cincinnati's flooded-out Coney Island amusement park, and turned to legendary designer John C. Allen — coaxed out of semi-retirement — to build a wooden coaster that could anchor the new park's opening day.

Allen and the Philadelphia Toboggan Company erected The Racer's twin 88-foot tracks from prefabricated sections lifted into place and bolted together at ground level, an assembly method unusual for its era that let the park finish construction on schedule for an April 29, 1972 opening. The Blue and Red trains raced side-by-side along parallel courses, and the ride is widely credited with reigniting a national wooden-coaster building boom that had gone dormant since the 1940s.

In May 1982 one of the two tracks began running its train backward — a novelty meant to distract guests frustrated by frequent closures on the newly opened Bat — and the "backward Racer" proved so popular that Kings Island kept it running that way for 26 seasons before restoring both tracks to forward-facing operation in 2008. The Racer appeared in a 1973 episode of The Brady Bunch filmed on-site and earned American Coaster Enthusiasts' Roller Coaster Landmark designation in 2007.

More than 50 years and over 100 million rides later, The Racer remains Coney Mall's centerpiece and the most-ridden attraction in Kings Island history.