Hersheypark Behind the Scenes: Lightning Racer Winter Maintenance

Date: January 31, 2025

Hersheypark opens for its 119th season on April 5, so our maintenance team is hard at work all winter preparing more than 70 attractions throughout the largest amusement park in Pennsylvania for another season of thrills.

In this behind-the-scenes feature, we'll take you inside the maintenance area of Lightning Racer to get an in-depth look at the overhaul process. Did you know the dueling wooden coaster at Hersheypark celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025? This double-track racing coaster opened to the public on May 13, 2000, and has delighted Park guests for a quarter century. 

Inside the Lightning Racer Maintenance Area

Lightning Racer is one of eight coasters that undergo their off-season maintenance at our maintenance facility. Since the coaster doesn't have its own dedicated maintenance bay built into the ride, the trains are craned off the track and transported to the facility following the conclusion of Hersheypark Halloween. Each train (two red for the lightning side and two green for the thunder side) is completely disassembled for extensive cleaning, upkeep and safety testing.  

Fun fact: Lightning Racer has a total of 48 cars across all four trains, with two rows of wheels and bogeys for each car. While the individual cars can be rotated within the order of the train, individual pieces of hardware like chassis and bogeys are numbered and remain with their specific car for the entirety of their service life. The cars are rotated yearly, meaning that a different car serves as the “lead car” each year. It takes 12 years to rotate each car completely within the order of the trains!

Great care is taken to ensure that each numbered piece of hardware remains with its corresponding chassis after the trains are disassembled. When the trains are apart, pieces like the wheels, lab bars and bogies are cleaned and individually inspected through advanced Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Over the 25-year history of Lightning Racer, updates have included the re-profiling of the lap bars, updated foam padding for the seats and even a complete upgrade of the ride's operating system.

Fun fact: Lightning Racer features “Millenium Flyer” trains created by the ride's manufacturer, Great Coasters International (GCI). Starting in the 2007 season, “Millenium Flyer” trains were also featured on Wildcat (1996-2022).

Lightning Racer Craning and Testing

Lightning Racer begins the maintenance process in November and generally concludes no later than two weeks before the opening of the Hersheypark season. Final maintenance checks on the train continue onsite with members of the maintenance team and the carpenters who inspect the coaster's structure.

Fun fact: The entire maintenance process is a collaborative effort across many different departments. From maintenance technicians assembling the trains to electricians programming the operating system, carpenters maintaining the wooden structure, and paint and sign shops keeping the trains and signage looking fresh, there are many team members whose combined efforts keep Lightning Racer in top shape. Even the ride manufacturer, GCI, has a hand in the maintenance process due to the close proximity of their headquarters to the Park in nearby Sunbury, Pa.

Although the off-season is considered the busiest for the maintenance team, their work on Lightning Racer and other rides doesn’t stop when Hersheypark opens for the season. A group of dedicated maintenance team members and carpenters complete a daily inspection of Lightning Racer, which takes place each day before the Park opens to the public. With a team of two maintenance members, the process can take up to four hours, while it can take between two and two-and-a-half hours for a group of four - the teams split their inspection across both sides of the coaster.

Ride Lightning Racer at Hersheypark in 2025

If you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the ride maintenance process, check out our previous maintenance stories spotlighting Wildcat's Revenge, Skyrush, Candymonium and Great Bear. Want to see another ride? Reach out to us on our Hersheypark social media channels (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok) with your suggestions. 

Don’t forget to purchase your 2025 Hersheypark tickets online before March 31 to save more than 45 percent off during the Best Price Of The Year sale. Then, mark April 5 on your calendar and get set to join the race between lightning and thunder as one of the coasters in the Park's iconic lineup - the most in the Northeast!

We look forward to seeing you soon for another year of Hersheypark Happy!