Dragon Challenge

The third "near miss" happened here in these corkscrew inversions.  Because the two tracks had completely different layouts, it took some serious engineering to ensure that the trains would meet at the three sections of track at the same time.  Hats off to Bolliger and Mabillard for figuring out the design and timing of two different roller coasters in order for them to interact in such interesting ways!

In response to at least two events where riders were hit by objects either thrown by riders or falling off the people on the other train, Universal announced in late 2011 that the ride would no longer duel as before.  Ever since then, just one train was allowed to be on the course at once.  It was a shame not to have those neat "close encounter" moments, but the ride was still great even without the other train to interact with.

©2012 by Joel A. Rogers.