Utah Theme Park Reveals First-of-Its-Kind U.S. Roller Coaster, Coming Next Year (2027)
There is a new roller coaster coming to Lagoon Amusement Park in Utah, and it will be the first of its kind in the country. J3 Grand Prix is scheduled to open in July 2027.
Lagoon revealed the name on October 3 after teasing the ride for several weeks. The park also showed a rendered look at J3 Grand Prix in its official Instagram reveal.
Lagoon released most of the ride specs in a press release before the name was announced. The park said it will be the first launched single-rail coaster in the United States, as well as Lagoon’s first multi-launch coaster and its first roller coaster built by Intamin.
The new coaster is going into the former Jet Star 2 area. Jet Star 2 closed after the 2025 season, and Lagoon’s Julie Freed told ABC4 that the park wanted to remember the old ride when naming its replacement.
J3 Grand Prix will have two launches
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J3 Grand Prix will have 1,746 feet of track and reach 40 mph. It will have two separate launches, three inversions, and 13 airtime moments.
Lagoon says those moments will add up to as much as eight seconds of airtime. The coaster’s highest point will be 50 feet. A full ride will last 102 seconds. Lagoon plans to run two trains with 10 riders each.
The seats run single-file over one rail
Intamin calls this type of coaster a Hot Racer. Riders sit single-file directly over the narrow track instead of next to each other.
Lagoon described the setup as giving riders a cockpit-like feeling. Intamin says its Hot Racer can use single or multiple launches and can be built with or without inversions.
The first Hot Racer, Big Dipper, opened at Luna Park Sydney in Australia in 2021. Intamin also identifies it as the world’s first launched single-rail coaster.
The name remembers Jet Star 2
Jet Star 2 had been at Lagoon since 1976 and was retired after the 2025 season. J3 Grand Prix is being built in the same area of the Farmington park.
Freed told ABC4 that Lagoon wanted the old Schwarzkopf coaster to be part of the new ride’s name. The J3 name is a nod to Jet Star 2.
