Raging Bull is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated wheel ...

located at

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

Gurnee, Illinois Gurnee ( ) is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 30,706 as of the 2020 census. It borders the city of Waukegan, and is a popular tourist attraction within the Chicago metropolitan area. Best known for being t ...

. 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 ...

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 Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...

(B&M), the ride opened to the public on May 1, 1999. It features a first drop, a maximum speed of , and a track length of over . It was the second B&M Hyper Coaster model to open in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, closely following the opening of

Apollo's Chariot Apollo's Chariot is a steel roller coaster at the Busch Gardens Williamsburg amusement park in James City County, Virginia, United States. The ride was the first Hyper Coaster designed by Swiss firm Bolliger & Mabillard. It officially opened ...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Busch Gardens Williamsburg (formerly known as Busch Gardens Europe and Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is a amusement park located in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Located approximately northwest of Virginia ...

History

On October 21, 1998, Six Flags Great America announced that they would be adding Raging Bull for the 1999 season. It would be located in the Southwest Territory section next to

Viper The Viperidae (vipers) are a family of snakes found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipers), hinged fangs th ...

. The park hired

to build a brand new hyper coaster. Construction on Raging Bull began in November 1998 and was completed by the following spring. It opened to the public on May 1, 1999. A media day was held two days earlier on April 29. In 2008, Raging Bull was repainted. The following year, the ride received a new entrance sign depicting a more aggressive bull. On June 15, 2016, Six Flags announced that

Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

(VR) would be added to the ride later in the year. The VR experience didn't last long on the rides that offered it across the Six Flags chain due to slower load times and longer lines, as well as additional staffing to distribute and sanitize each headset.

Description

Raging Bull is located in the

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States ...

section of

, situated between

and the giant helix on

American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

. It was built on the site previously occupied by Rolling Thunder, a

bobsled roller coaster A bobsled roller coaster is a roller coaster that uses a track design that is essentially a "pipe" with the top half removed and has cars that are sent down this pipe in a freewheeling mode. The name derives from the great similarity to the track ...

that operated at the park from 1989 to 1995. Raging Bull's station is designed to have a run-down appearance. The track is painted orange with unpainted rails and wine-colored supports.

Ride experience

As the train exits the station, it makes a left turn and a small dip before ascending the

lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from t ...

. At the , the train traverses a pre-drop into a brief straight section of track, before making a into a tunnel, reaching speeds of up to . The track then ascends into a hammerhead turn to the right. After the turnaround is a parabolic hill with a trim brake on the uphill side. This is followed by another hill that banks left over the station area, a dip under the lift hill, and another hammerhead turn to the left. The train then makes a right-hand uphill turn into a mid-course brake run. Dropping off the mid-course brakes, the track passes the on-ride camera. This is followed by an airtime hill and a three-quarter turn to the right, wrapping around the first drop and diving into a figure-eight turn. Exiting the turn, the train rises uphill and enters the final brake run before returning to the station.

Awards

References

External links

Six Flags Great America: Raging Bull
{{Six Flags Great America rides Roller coasters introduced in 1999 Roller coasters in Illinois Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Six Flags Great America 1999 establishments in Illinois Hypercoasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard