page_title: Patriot (California's Great America)
section_title: Vortex (1991–2016)
hierarchical_section_title: Patriot (California's Great America) / History / Vortex (1991–2016)
caption_attribution_description: English: Stand-up roller coaster Vortex at California's Great America Deutsch: Stand-up Achterbahn Vortex in California's Great America
context_page_description: Patriot is a floorless roller coaster located in Celebration Plaza at the California's Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, California, United States. The roller coaster originally opened as Vortex on March 9, 1991. It was a stand-up roller coaster designed by Werner Stengel and manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard.
  Vortex last operated as a stand-up coaster on September 5, 2016, and it reopened as Patriot on April 1, 2017. The ride was converted to a sit-down configuration featuring new floorless trains and a new color scheme.
context_section_description: Vortex was a stand-up roller coaster that officially opened on March 9, 1991, as the second coaster from the company Bolliger & Mabillard following Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America. Although the layout differs, Vortex is generally the same size as its (former) namesake, Vortex, located at sister park Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  As the ride had gotten rough with age and wasn't particularly smooth anymore, it made a good conversion candidate to improve the experience in the space constrained park. At the time of closing, on September 5, 2016, the coaster had a paint scheme of purple track with yellow rails and gray supports.
caption: Vortex (California's Great America) 1991–2016.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 50D", "Image XResolution": "100", "Image YResolution": "100", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.3 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2013:03:05 19:25:46", "Image Artist": "Stefan Scheer", "Image Copyright": "Stefan Scheer", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[37, 119089/5000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[121, 291949/5000, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "814", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1022", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "17453", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:10:17 13:06:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:10:17 13:06:44", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "31/8", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "329/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1056000/199", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Stefan Scheer", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "430322312", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 200, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS"}