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'Roller Coaster Mama' logs 500 on Kings Island’s Diamondback

On Saturday, July 11, Darlene Bell, 52, of Dayton, became the first person to log 500 rides on Kings Island’s Diamondback coaster.

Photo courtesy of Kings Island On Saturday, July 11, Darlene Bell, 52, of Dayton, became the first person to log 500 rides on Kings Island’s Diamondback coaster.

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Photo courtesy of Kings Island On Saturday, July 11, Darlene Bell, 52, of Dayton, became the first person to log 500 rides on Kings Island’s Diamondback coaster.

By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 1:58 PM Monday, July 13, 2009

Darlene Bell routinely subjects herself to sudden drops of as much as 215 feet at speeds of more than 80 mph. It’s all in a weekend day’s work for the self-proclaimed “Roller Coaster Mama.”

On Saturday, July 11, Bell, 52, of Dayton, became the first person to log 500 rides on Kings Island’s Diamondback coaster. On Sunday, July 12, she rode it another 14 times, bringing her total on Diamondback to 522 rides in 29 outings.

She has no plans to stop, and hopes to eventually ride the new coaster 1,000 times.

Bell said she became a roller coaster addict at age 13, when she started visiting the now-defunct LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park in Butler County. She has been a Kings Island regular since the park opened in 1972, and has ridden The Beast more times than she can count.

Why does she like roller coasters so much?

“I don’t know. They relax me. And the speed — I like the speed.” She also said Diamondback, which opened to the public April 18, has “good air time.”

“When your booty leaves the seat, that’s air time,” she explained. “Air time is good for us roller coaster enthusiasts. The more air time, the better the ride.”

Bell has a platinum season pass, entitling her to visit not just Kings Island, but Cedar Point and the other amusement parks owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Co.

“She’s there (at the park) all the time,” said Kings Island spokesman Don Helbig, who himself has ridden The Racer 11,973 times, mostly in the 1980s. “She can’t get enough of (Diamondback). Once she gets off it she wants to get back in line to ride it again.”

Bell said she her husband, Charles, doesn’t care for coasters, so she visits Kings Island with friends. She has stepped up her visits in recent years, since her two sons became adults.

“When my kids got grown,” she said, “I said, ‘It’s mama’s turn to have fun.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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