BIG PAYOFF : When It Showers at Fair’s Kamikazi Thrill Ride, It Rains Pennies From Heaven

Like most carnies who spend half the year traveling the county fair circuit, amusement ride operator James Johnson doesn’t much care for rain.

Unless, of course, it’s that localized shower that hits a hundred times a day when Johnson cranks up the 32-seat Kamikazi thrill ride and turns screaming passengers upside-down 54 feet above the midway.

Some days, as much as $8 in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters rain down on Johnson from the Kamikazi, one of the most popular rides at the Los Angeles County Fair, which wraps up its year’s 18-day run Sunday.

But on days when real rain falls on Pomona, the pickings are leaner, as crowds stay home to avoid being soaked.

Crown Jewel

There are some who would argue that, at $3 per ride, those who step woozily from the Kamikazi are getting soaked even on the sunniest of days. Others view the midway as the crown jewel of the 62nd annual County Fair.

“This one is a great ride,” said Stacey Mobley, 14, of Temple City, as she gathered her bearings after being spun and dangled by the Kamikazi.

“We may ride it again,” said her friend, B.J. DesAutles, 16, of Arcadia.

By about midnight Sunday, when the lights on the 120-foot Ferris wheel are flicked off to signal the fair’s close, visitors will have taken about 1.5 million trips on the 84 midway rides, carnival operator Guy Leavitt said.

Many of the visitors will also have stepped up to the 150 game booths scattered around the midway where barkers exhort them to toss dimes into saucers or lift soft-drink bottles with strings in hopes of winning a stuffed Batman doll or a lime-green Top Cat.

“We’ll go through four semis full of Batmans,” said Leavitt, 39, who runs Ray Cammack Shows of Phoenix. “We have seven truckloads of Top Cats.”

Profitable Venture

Leavitt won’t discuss revenues, but the share from rides and games should be at least $2.25 million, said fair president Ralph M. Hinds. Other fair officials estimate Leavitt will gross $4 million.

Because the fair’s carnival is so lucrative, rival carnival operators are pressing Hinds for an invitation to run the 1990 midway.

Larry Davis, 56, owner of Colton-based Carnival Time Shows Inc., said he has warned Hinds that he will file a lawsuit if Hinds does not agree by Oct. 13 to consider his bid.

Hinds said Friday that he has been pleased by Cammack’s rides, which have been used for five years in Pomona.

“Our major criteria was someone with a good safety record and good equipment. We have not reached an agreement for next year, but it is my feeling they will be back,” he said.

Officials say they were undeterred by a spectacular early evening carnival accident Sept. 22 that added unexpected excitement to the midway’s bumper boat ride and roller coaster.

A 50-gallon tank of gasoline being carried to the boat ride on an electric cart sloshed and shorted the cart’s motor, causing a roaring, 40-foot fire that engulfed the back end of the nearby roller coaster.

‘Like a Volcano’

“It was just like a volcano,” said Ron Robertson, a division chief with the Pomona Fire Department. “No one was hurt. It didn’t explode, but it was getting close to it. It could have blown burning fuel all over the spectators. “

The roller coaster was shut down until engineers found there was no structural damage.

But Leavitt said the fire turned the popular Hi Miler into the kind of thrill ride that he doesn’t plan to ever duplicate.