Dual-tracked roller coaster

Riders slap hands on the Racer at Kennywood

A dual-tracked roller coaster is a roller coaster which consists of two tracks. There are three types of dual-tracked roller coasters: racing, dueling, and Möbius Loop roller coasters.

Not all parks choose to operate both sides of their dual-tracked coasters; Rolling Thunder and Colossus are two examples of this. Other parks operate one side frontwards and one side backwards.

Variants

Dragon Challenge in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a dueling inverted roller coaster.

A racing roller coaster consists of two separate roller coasters that travel along parallel or mirrored tracks to simulate a race between the trains. The coaster trains travel along tracks just a few feet apart from one another. They often get close enough for riders to reach out and slap hands with riders on the opposite train, though this is extremely dangerous and can result in ejection from the park.

A dueling roller coaster features two (or more) roller coasters, usually with a similar layout, built close to each other. The rides are designed to do just as the name indicates: to duel. The coaster's layout often consists of strategic maneuvering to produce near-misses between the two coaster trains, designed to induce a greater adrenaline rush for the rider than a stand-alone roller coaster.

A Möbius loop roller coaster can be either a racing roller coaster or a dueling roller coaster. Its unique feature is that there is one continuous track instead of two separate ones. As a result, the station that a train leaves is not the same one to which it will return. One unusual case is Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, a Möbius Loop type coaster where there is only one station - one cycle of the ride takes the train through both sides of the "Möbius Loop."

Examples

Coaster Name	Park	Location	Track	Type	Builder	Year Opened	Notes
American Eagle	Six Flags Great America	Gurnee, Illinois	Wooden	Racing	Intamin	1981	Tallest, fastest racing wooden roller coaster in the world.[1]
Batman & Robin: The Chiller	Six Flags Great Adventure	Jackson, New Jersey	Steel	Dueling	Premier Rides	1997	Closed in 2007, currently in storage
Battlestar Galactica	Universal Studios Singapore	Sentosa, Singapore	Steel	Dueling	Vekoma	2010	Battlestar Galactica closed in February 2013 due to technical issues, and reopened on 27 May 2015. Tallest duelling roller coaster in the world.
Dauling Dragon	Happy Valley Wuhan	Wuhan, Hubei, China	Wooden	Racing	Martin & Vleminckx	2012	China's first racing roller coaster. Designed by The Gravity Group.
Dragon Challenge	Universal's Islands of Adventure	Orlando, Florida	Steel	Dueling	Bolliger & Mabillard	1999	Although this ride is listed as dueling, the individual tracks do not run synchronized due to a variety of incidents. Inverted roller coaster.
Gemini	Cedar Point	Sandusky, Ohio	Steel	Racing	Arrow Dynamics	1978	With wood structure.
Grand National	Blackpool Pleasure Beach	Blackpool, Lancashire	Wooden	Möbius loop	Charles Paige	1935
Gwazi	Busch Gardens Tampa Bay	Tampa, Florida	Wooden	Dueling	Great Coasters International	1999	Closed in 2015. Only the Lion side was operating as of 2012.
Joris en de Draak	Efteling	Kaatsheuvel	Wooden	Racing	Great Coasters International	2010
Lightning Racer	Hersheypark	Hershey, Pennsylvania	Wooden	Dueling	Great Coasters International	2000
Matterhorn Bobsleds	Disneyland	Anaheim, California	Steel		Arrow Dynamics	1959	Weaves around and through a replica of the Matterhorn. World's first tubular steel roller coaster.
Max Adventures Master Thai	Mirabilandia	Italy	Steel	Möbius loop	Preston & Barbieri	2011	Riders simultaneously board on both halves of the Möbius loop.
Milky Way	Mitsui Greenland	Arao, Kumamoto	Steel	Racing	Senyo Kogyo Co., Ltd.	1991	Stand-up roller coaster
Le Monstre	La Ronde	Montréal, Québec	Wooden	Racing	William Cobb & Associates	1985/86	One track opened in 1985, the other in 1986
Montaña Rusa	La Feria Chapultepec Mágico	Mexico City	Wooden	Möbius loop	National Amusement Device Company	1964
The Racer	Kings Island	Mason, Ohio	Wooden	Racing	Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters	1972	Credited for starting the "Second Coaster Boom". One train formerly ran backwards until 2008. World's fastest racing coaster (1972–1976).
Racer	Kennywood	West Mifflin, Pennsylvania	Wooden	Möbius loop	Charile Mach	1927
Ramses	Parque de Atracciones de Zaragoza	Zaragoza	Steel	Racing	Safeco	2002	Opened in 1987 at Parque de Atracciones de Montjuic, named as "Vikingo". It stayed until the park's closure in 1998, and reopened with a new theming, location and name in 2002. First half pipe roller coaster evwr built in a park.
Rebel Yell	Kings Dominion	Doswell, Virginia	Wooden	Racing	Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters	1975	One train formerly ran backwards until 2008.
Rolling Thunder	Six Flags Great Adventure	Jackson, New Jersey	Wooden	Racing	William Cobb & Associates	1979	Ride has two tracks in a figure 8 pattern, but the hills are arranged differently on each track. Closed in 2013 to make way for Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom.
Stampida	PortAventura Park	Salou, Tarragona	Wooden	Racing	Custom Coasters International	1997
Space Mountain	Magic Kingdom	Lake Buena Vista, Florida	Steel		Arrow Dynamics	1975	Oldest operating roller coaster in Florida.
Thunder Road	Carowinds	Charlotte, North Carolina	Wooden	Racing	Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters	1976	Crosses the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. One train formerly ran backwards until 2008. Closed and demolished in 2015.
Twisted Colossus	Six Flags Magic Mountain	Valencia, California	Steel	Möbius loop	Rocky Mountain Construction	1978 (as Colossus)	With wood structure. Formerly known as Colossus; closed on August 16, 2014 after 36 years of operation. Opened on May 23, 2015 as Twisted Colossus. Unlike most "Möbius loop" racing/dueling coasters, Twisted Colossus has one station and trains go through both sides of the "Möbius loop" on one cycle. The original Colossus was a traditional two-track racing wooden coaster.
Vertigorama	Parque de la Ciudad	Buenos Aires City	Steel	Racing	Intamin	1983	Standing but not operating. Track was completed but electrical was never finished. Thus, the coaster never opened.
Vleermuis	Plopsaland De Panne	De Panne, West Flanders, Belgium	Steel	Racing	Caripro	2000	Suspended roller coaster.
Windjammer Surf Racers	Knott's Berry Farm	Buena Park, California	Steel	Racing	TOGO	1997	Closed in 2000 due to various problems.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dueling roller coasters.

• Möbius Loop roller coaster at RCDB