CEDAR POINT Wild ride set for 2007

It will take two and a half minutes to complete the Maverick roller coaster ride.
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
SANDUSKY -- Cedar Point will open a new roller coaster that will drop riders at a 95-degree angle -- more than straight up and down -- and turn them upside down three times, the park announced Thursday.
In addition to a 100-foot drop, the steel coaster called Maverick will launch riders through a tunnel at speeds of 70 mph.
It will be the 17th roller coaster at the park along Lake Erie.
The $21 million ride opens in May.
The coaster was designed by IntaRide LLC, operated by the Swiss company Intamin AG that built Cedar Point's Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.
The new ride will be in the Frontiertown section of the park.
Maverick will use steam-era styled coaster trains that travel on a 4,450-foot-long course -- fourth-longest at Cedar Point. Linear synchronous motors will propel the train to the top of the 105-foot hill that begins the ride. After cresting, the track drops at a 95-degree angle, at speeds up to 57 miles per hour, to within 5 feet above ground level.
The train then hugs the terrain with banks around hairpin turns. The 2-minute, 30-second ride has eight hills. Riders must be at least 48 inches tall.
Location
Maverick will be between the Mean Streak roller coaster and Thunder Canyon water ride.
At the end of the 2005 season, the former White Water Landing ride was demolished and removed from the park -- although the ride's station remained for use with Maverick's queue line.
Throughout the winter and spring of 2006, construction crews prepared and poured footers for Maverick, even before the park opened for the season, spurring speculation as to what Cedar Point was planning.
Guests will be able to follow the construction progress of Maverick at the park's Web site, www.cedarpoint.com.