The Patriot Coming to Life at California's Great America

© California's Great America

Sheesh, they're wasting no time on the transformation of Vortex into Patriot at California's Great America!  The stand-up roller coaster just closed for good on September 5th, and the theme park has already started the work of the physical transformation of the coaster.  The bigger task of adding new floorless trains from B&M and making the station and service areas accommodate them is still to come, I would assume.

The above photo, shared by the park in a gallery on social media, shows the Patriot/Vortex mash-up in one.  The new blue paint on the left is quickly replacing the faded purple and yellow combination that Vortex featured, on the right.

© California's Great America

And fast forwarding just a bit from when the top photo was taken, you can get a real feel for the new look of Patriot in this shot.  The ride is striking in its electric blue track with crisp white supports.  From the looks of just this section it seems that at least half of the coaster has already been repainted, if not more.  The blue is also a nice compliment to the bright red track that was painted on California's Great America's other B&M coaster, the inverted ride named Flight Deck.  Stay tuned for more on the ride's changes as the winter months roll by.