Roller coaster expert: ‘Highly unusual’ Carowinds ride shut down a second time
Roller coaster fans in the Carolinas are grappling with the second closure in three years of a popular Carowinds ride, the Fury 325, at the theme park that sprawls across Charlotte and Fort Mill, S.C.
Fury 325 is closed indefinitely after a routine maintenance inspection on July 7 revealed a problem with the foundation. The attraction was shut down that day for repairs, Carowinds said in a statement released a week later on the night of July 14.
The park has not given an estimate for when Fury 325 will be back nor has it detailed what the issue was that led to the closure at the peak of its summer season.
A different type of issue forced the roller coaster to abruptly shut down in 2023 after a park visitor noticed a broken Fury 325 support beam. The coaster was closed for six weeks during that summer.
Martin Lewison is known as “Professor Roller Coaster,” teaching about business, theme parks and tourism at Farmingdale State College in New York. He has ridden more than 2,600 different roller coasters, including Fury 325.
“I don’t know of other cases where a similar ride of similar vintage has had not just one major defect occur, but now, here’s a second issue,” Lewison said of Fury 325. “It is highly unusual.
“It could be a lot of different things, and hopefully for the park, for the guests, for the fans, it will be something that’s reparable within a reasonable time frame,” he said. Lewison speculated that there could be issues with the coaster’s cement footers.
He also noted he is a shareholder of Six Flags, the parent company of Carowinds.
Named after its 325-foot height, Fury 325 was designed and built by Switzerland-based Bolliger & Mabillard and opened in 2015.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced its plans to permanently close Kumba, a B&M coaster, on Tuesday, July 14. The ride was open for 33 years. Lewison said these styles of steel roller coasters, including Fury 325, typically have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years.
A fan’s perspective on Fury 325
McLain Waddell, often referred to as “Fury Guy” in the Carowinds community, has ridden the shuttered roller coaster 14,005 times. His last time riding was Sunday, July 5.
When Fury 325 opened in 2015, Waddell visited the park from his home in Indian Trail. He soon realized that repeatedly riding the coaster helped manage his anxiety disorder and traumatic brain injury symptoms caused by a car accident in high school.
“I realized that it did have some positive effect on my life,” Waddell said. “So I did what I could to just integrate it into my life before work, after work, on days off and really just leaned into the feeling that it helped, and it truly did.”
Waddell learned that the coaster was down from social media reports while on a business trip as a regional manager for Allstate Protection Plans. He said he would have ridden it after returning home if it had been open.
“It definitely is not good for them in this season,” Waddell said. “It’s the busy time, so I’m sure they’re working as quickly as they can to get it up as quickly as possible.”
About Carowinds’ parent company, Six Flags
From 2006 to 2024, Cedar Fair owned the 400-acre park, which spans the border of North Carolina and South Carolina. In November 2023, Cedar Fair and Six Flags Entertainment Corp announced its $8 billion merger under the Six Flags name.
Six Flags was based in Arlington, Texas, and Cedar Fair was based in Sandusky, Ohio. As a part of the transition, the merged Six Flags moved its headquarters to Charlotte.