Six Flags to add dual-track coaster

Six Flags Magic Mountain will soon have 20 ways to make your head spin, your heart pound and your stomach lurch.

The Valencia amusement park announced plans Wednesday to open its 20th roller coaster next year, a thrill ride with side-by-side tracks so that two vehicles packed with screaming riders can zoom alongside each other, reaching speeds of up to 55 mph.

Six Flags Magic Mountain is describing the ride, West Coast Racers, as the world’s first racing coaster that includes twin tracks, multiple hills, high-banked turns, plus several places where the two tracks intertwine like strands of spaghetti. Each vehicle makes two complete circuits of its track during the three-minute ride.

The coaster will include a “pit stop” that will feature the narration of Ryan Friedlinghaus, founder of West Coast Customs, the auto customizing shop that was popularized in the MTV show “Pimp My Ride.”

The news of the latest ride comes about a year after Six Flags Magic Mountain announced it was operating 365 days a year, up from 250 days, to draw international visitors and to make the transition from a regional amusement park to a destination resort like Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

According to the website Coasterpedia, Six Flags Magic Mountain has more roller coasters than any other amusement park in the world, with 19.

For several years, Six Flags Magic Mountain would trade off on holding the title of most roller coasters in the world with its rival Cedar Point, a park in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Point now has 17 coasters, tied for second place with Ankapark in Ankara, Turkey.