California Marriott’s
Great America Addition #1
Pull Up a Seat on Willard’s Whizzer …
The Whizzer is a steel roller coaster located in the Hometown Square section of Marriott’s Great America. This one pictured here was taken at The California Marriott’s Great America amusement park in April of 1979.
The Whizzer, originally named “Willard’s Whizzer,” was one of two identical roller coasters built for each of the Marriott’s Great America parks. The Whizzer roller coasters made their debut when the parks opened in May of 1976.
The California Great America Whizzer operated from 1976-1988. My family visited the California location of Marriott’s Great America in Santa Clara, California in April of 1979. I am not sure if I actually Pulled Up a Seat and ride the roller coaster or not (I’m not too keen on large high-speed roller coasters.) The second location for Marriott’s Great America (currently known as Six Flags Great America) is in Gurnee, Illinois.
From the very beginning, both versions of Whizzer suffered with problems surrounding the braking system. The braking system would sometimes allow the trains to collide in the station. From 1976-1979, there were at least 11 recorded instances of station collisions on the California’s Great America version, resulting in an unknown number of injuries. The Illinois’ Great America Whizzer also had two station collisions which occurred less than a month apart in 1976. A total of 31 riders were injured in the Gurnee collisions.
The Steel Roller Coasters were manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf of Germany. These two versions of Whizzer were the last “Speedracer” models ever built.
If you want to have a chance to Pull Up a Seat on the Whizzer, you’ll need to visit the Gurnee, Illinois location of Six Flags Great America.
Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge 2024-Week 27
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: Santa Clara, California, USA
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