Would-Be Giant Dipper Riders Thrown for a Loop

About 60 roller-coaster enthusiasts were forced to stay on the ground Tuesday when the grand reopening of the Giant Dipper roller coaster in Belmont Park was canceled because a 65-year-old sprocket didn’t make it through final testing.

During restoration of the wooden coaster, which opened in 1925, officials had decided not to replace one of the four original sprockets that turn the chain that pulls the cars up a 71-foot hill.

But a few of the teeth on the sprocket, which were made to fit into the links of a chain, chipped during a test run Monday night when the coaster was weighted down with 24, 150-pound sandbags to simulate the weight of real passengers.

“It didn’t hold up,” said Dana Morgan, vice president of San Diego Seaside Co., the group doing the $1.2-million restoration. “We had a minor tooth failure and that told us to stop.”

Chipped teeth on a sprocket are not a big safety hazard because the coaster is equipped with a system that would have prevented the cars from rolling back down the hill, Morgan said.

If a replacement sprocket can be tracked down, the coaster could be up and running as early as Friday. But coaster officials are hesitant about committing themselves to a specific date because the new sprocket needs to be installed and tested.

“We won’t open until we have it mechanically correct,” said Ed Hutton, president of San Diego Seaside.

About 60 spectators, many hoping to take a $2 ride, gathered near the coaster at Mission Boulevard and West Mission Bay Drive under hazy skies Tuesday morning.

“I’ll be back,” Gary Bandur of San Diego said. “For 10 years, I’ve been hoping they’d save it.”

The Giant Dipper, which has survived years of demolition threats, was declared a national historic landmark by the National Park Service last month.

When the coaster does open, it will run during the summer from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Fridays and Saturdays, when it will stay open until 11 p.m., said Judi Lapin, a Belmont Park spokeswoman.