Nancy Lynch set out this season with what she figured was an ambitious number in mind for her annual ride challenge at Great Escape: 500 trips on the Bobcat rollercoaster. She blew past it, kept going, and finished with 1,098 rides on the wooden coaster in Queensbury, New York, a total that stunned even the 76-year-old who climbed aboard again and again all year.
Lynch has been a fixture at the park since childhood. “I’ve been coming here since 1954,” she said, according to NEWS10 ABC, which first reported her ride count after reporter Payton Cavanaugh met her on the Bobcat. The outlet reports she rode the coaster a total of 1,098 times this season, a number that grew well past her original target once park employees started raising the stakes.
It started small. “I set myself up for 500. Well, I thought that was a lot. I reached the 500,” Lynch said, per the same account. A Great Escape team member then encouraged her to push for 750 rides, and the park’s head of rides told her to go for a thousand instead, according to the station’s report.
A Tradition of Picking a Yearly Ride Challenge
This isn’t the first time Lynch has turned a coaster into a personal test of endurance. “Every year I like to pick a ride, as a challenge for myself,” she said. Back in 2001, her chosen ride was the Outlaw, which she rode 208 times that year before health problems set in, according to NEWS10.
Lynch also has a history working at the park itself, having been employed there from 2009 through 2012, as reported by NEWS10. She said she loves the thrill, the atmosphere, and most of all the people, adding that the people are what make the park. Between rides, she said she enjoys people-watching near the Storytown houses, attractions that the park says are meant to bring back treasured memories for longtime visitors, according to Great Escape. Lynch said those houses bring back childhood memories of her own, tying directly into Storytown USA's 1954 opening, the same year she first visited.
The Bobcat's Own Short History
The coaster that carried Lynch through more than a thousand rides this year is itself a relatively new addition to the park. Six Flags announced the Bobcat in 2023 as a brand-new wooden coaster set to debut in 2024, calling it the first new coaster constructed at Great Escape since 2003, according to Six Flags. The ride was built to replace the Alpine Bobsled, which was scheduled to retire that September, and it carries a height requirement of 42 inches with a responsible person or 48 inches to ride alone, per the company's announcement.
Staying Young at Heart, One Loop at a Time
Lynch gets around the park using wheels, and she said people have teased her about her well-worn Fright Fest hoodie, calling it an antique. She laughed it off, insisting she remains young at heart. “I’m 20 at heart,” she said, framing her outlook as proof that age is no barrier to chasing a goal.
She said she believes a person is never too old to do anything, and credits determination with helping people accomplish their goals while keeping her happy, healthy, and wise. Her marathon season at Great Escape echoes other coaster feats elsewhere, including 105-year-old Jack Reynolds, who told The Guardian he broke the record for oldest person to ride a rollercoaster after riding the Twistosaurus at Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire, calling the three- or four-minute ride something he enjoyed every second of. For Lynch, the reward isn’t a single ride but the stretch of a whole season spent chasing a number she once thought was out of reach.
