Rookie Racer - NOW OPEN (SFSTL)

 

The newest roller coaster in Missouri has finally opened for the season

The train exiting the station

The lift hill is tire driven and the entire coaster features sound effects thanks to numerous speakers

You are actually launched over this first drop

We were actually taken back a little on the forcefulness of the drop

After the drop there are several curves and a helix

Zooming around the curve farthest from the station

Picking up some speed in the second part of the ride before heading back to the station

Twisting back to the station

The train heading back to the station

A very fun ride.  We highly recommend hitting it early in the day as the line gets very long later on due to there only being one train for the ride

Rookie Racer (SFSTL)

 

Rookie Racer's track work is now complete and according to the park, they still plan on opening the ride this season.  Mind you, the park is already on weekend-only operations

The lift hill will be tire driven

Work is still being done on the station.  This will be the exit side

You will enter the station and load on the far side.  There is a stairway to get up here from the eventual queue line

The lift hill.  It appears that they are still working on the safety railing

The first drop is actually pretty impressive for a kiddie coaster

Here is a better look at the angle of decent

After the first drop there is a rather flat helix that turns to the right

Once you get into the helix it is basically the same height until you exit it

Here you can see the very slight height change in this helix.  Also you can see that the train will have plenty of room to go underneath the track

The next helix is a little more impressive and will probably pull some Gs

After exiting the second helix you take this meandering path at the bottom of the photo

Followed by this curve back into the station.  It appears that the only brakes are in the actual station

We noticed that they have put a pole in the middle of this helix.  We wonder if this will be where cameras are mounted for an onride photo

This is the exit ramp for the ride

This is where the queue line for the ride should go.

While the park has not released the Opening Date for the ride, they have promised that it will be released soon.  Once we have that date we will share it on our media platforms

Rookie Racer (SFSTL)

 

Well here we are near the end of July and Rookie Racer, the "new for 2023" addition to Six Flags St. Louis is still not open yet for the season

Now the good news is, they have finally gone vertical with this ride.  The station frame is nearly completed and they have a turn into the station up with track and supports

Zooming out, you can see that there is a lot of work to be done still.

It appears that all of the footers might be in place now.

Well ... it appears that a couple are still curing so they must have been recent pours

Lots of supports here in the middle for the helix

Smaller footers here for the ramp up to the station

We are calling it now - Rookie Racer is going to be the "new for 2024" attraction at SFSTL

Rookie Racer (SFSTL)

 

Since our last visit, footers have started to appear

This is where the station (the box) and the turn out of the station will be located

Here’s the foundation for the station being formed.

Still several footers that need to go in here as there’s a helix in this area of the layout 

One thing that we noticed is that the train tracks go right through these footers and that there’s not much clearance

These footers are still being formed. 

Yeah really going to be interesting what happens with the train tracks in that section

Zooming out you can get a pretty good view of most of the site

Some of the track has been moved around.  Not sure if this means they are organizing to get it ready for installation eventually

Some of the “train clearance” footers

Looking back at that hill, they’re going to have to put in some type of retaining wall still and there’s no supplies on site to even begin that process

I’m not convinced this won’t get pushed to a 2024 opening at this point.