Patriot

Patriot is a floorless roller coaster located in Celebration Plaza at the California's Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, California, United States. The roller coaster originally opened as Vortex on March 9, 1991, which was a stand-up roller coaster designed by Werner Stengel and manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard.

Vortex last operated as a stand-up coaster on September 5, 2016, and reopened as Patriot on April 1, 2017. The ride was converted to a sit-down configuration featuring new floorless trains and a new color scheme.

History
Vortex was a stand-up roller coaster that officially opened on March 9, 1991 as Bolliger & Mabillard's second ever coaster after Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America. Although the layout differs, Vortex is generally the same size as its (former) namesake, Vortex, located in the Carolina Showplace park section at the Cedar Fair owned and operated, cross border amusement park Carowinds, situated in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Fort Mill, South Carolina.

As the ride had gotten rough with age and wasn't particularly smooth anymore, it made a good conversion candidate to improve the experience in the space constrained park. At the time of closing, on September 5, 2016, the coaster had a paint scheme of purple track with yellow rails and gray supports.

On August 18, 2016, the park announced Vortex would be converted to Patriot for the 2017 season, including new Bolliger & Mabillard floorless trains and a new color scheme consisting of (repainted) blue track and white supports. Although this is the first floorless coaster in the park’s 41-year history it is the second floorless conversion in the Cedar Fair chain, following Mantis turning into Rougarou at Cedar Point back in 2015.