SIX FLAGS COASTER PROJECTS ON TRACK RIDE ENTHUSIASTS FOLLOW THE PROGRESS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

VALENCIA - In the overflow parking lot at Six Flags California sits what the roller coaster community has been waiting for - colorful pieces of track that will become the building blocks of this spring's new rides.

Soon workers will begin digging the 30-foot post holes, and travelers along the Golden State Freeway might be able to crane their necks and see Deja Vu, X and Goliath Jr. rising toward the sky.

``When you turn that corner it's always been spectacular to see Viper,'' coaster enthusiast Ric Turner said about the main entrance to the park.

``Now X is going to be even bigger in front of it,'' said Turner. ``People are going to be driving off into the ditch when they make that corner ... 'Look at that!' ''

Park officials say construction is on track for the spring opening of the new rides that will put the Valencia theme park in the record books with the most coasters - 15.

Deja Vu, a boomerang-style coaster, will have nothing but air beneath riders' dangling feet, and X passengers will ride at 76 mph while spinning forward and backward, officials said. Goliath Jr. is a kids' version of the popular Goliath ride.

``Everything is on schedule,'' said park spokesman Andy Gallardo.

With three new coasters under way at Six Flags California, and the opening last week of the new California Adventure next to Disneyland, some say it's a good time to go ride a coaster.

One industry analyst said the opening of California Adventure helps breed competition - even though Disney and Six Flags are drawing from different crowds.

Senior Media Analyst Robin Diedrich at Edward Jones in St. Louis said California Adventure offers an international destination while Six Flags is more of a single-day excursion.

``Certainly the addition of the new park by Disney is going to be competition,'' she said.

Coaster fan Turner points to Disney's new coaster, California Screamin' at the new park, as the kind of thrill ride that attracts the coaster community and gives Disney a chance to take a share of the thrill-seeker market.

``I don't think it's coincidence that California Adventure is opening this year and Magic Mountain is putting in three coasters,'' said Turner, who is regional representative of American Coaster Enthusiasts.

``The coaster enthusiast community is absolutely thrilled with this competition because there's more rides everywhere ...,'' he said. ``The winners of this competition (are) all of us.''

Six Flags spokesman Gallardo said the park's decision to bring in three new rides this year, the park's 30th anniversary in Valencia, was an opportunity despite the Walt Disney Co.'s expansion.

``The new park is great for the entire industry, it will bring (visitors) and awareness from all over the entire world,'' Gallardo said of California Adventure.

Still, he said, hard-core coaster riders will always come back to Six Flags for the coaster experience.

``We've always been the park of choice for thrill seekers,'' Gallardo said. ``We just felt the opportunity was right to stake our claim.''

``I think when it comes to thrill rides, and world-class roller coasters, we're simply in a league of our own.''

The new rides are part of the park's biggest capital expansion in its 30- year history, bringing to 15 the number of coasters in the park, breaking the record set previously at the Cedar Point park in Ohio.

Deja Vu is being built in a stretch of property on the back side of the park, in Cyclone Bay near the ride Psyclone, along blue and green track, spokeswoman Amy Means said.

Purple-and-yellow X will rise in the desert-theme Viper Plateau, off to the visitors' left when they first enter the park.

Goliath Jr., being added to the kids' area, is a smaller version of the roller coaster that broke records as the highest in the world when it opened a year ago.

Turner says he's seen other coaster enthusiasts like him, who head over to the park near his Santa Clarita home just to catch a glimpse of the construction activity.

He said he wouldn't be surprised if X, the prototype coaster, took until summer to open, since it's a first-ots-kind operation.

Otherwise, he said, once work begins the rides go up quickly, ``like an erector set,'' and the park seems well on its way.

``It's definitely moving along,'' he said.

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(1 -- 2 -- ran in SAC and AV editions only) Sections of the new Magic Mountain roller coasters Deja Vu, left, and X, above, await assembly for their spring debut at Six Flags California.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News