Park Profile
www.parkworld-online.com
until you couldn't turn the wheel. We used a sledge
“
I'd always
hammer to straighten out those bent bumpers.”
“Through all this Pop would tell me 'I don't ever want
wanted to
you to be a mechanic! As long as you're doing it for
build a
yourself, you're okay, but not for anyone else. Always
work for yourself! Still, our family had found a business
rollercoaster.
that we were successful in, and you don't walk away
The Larricks
from that.”
gave us a
Sibling Rivalry
cheap price
“Now my sister Penny was much better in school than I
was. She was the smart one, and in fact eventually
for Cyclops in
became an attorney. I was the dummy in school, but a
1995,
natural mechanic. Pop wasn't paying me or my sister
much while we worked for him, but I wanted to make
$400,000.
some money too. So starting in 1988 I built all of the “I went to Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,
One train, no
go-karts myself, became my own manufacturer. We just underwent a new type of chemotherapy, a first-time
had just a little shop, I put in the lathes and the experiment ...but what did I have to lose? I signed the
transfer track.
welders, moulded our own bodies and gas tanks. I release, and the tumour shrunk without any operation
Attendance
called our go-karts the 'Laskari,' without the 'S' on the other than the biopsy.”
end to sound like an Italian race car.” Nick returned in time to open Big Chief Go-Karts on
increased
By 1985, the Laskaris family had torn down the The Wisconsin Dells Strip. This big, new track was
about 45%
original hot dog stand and built a four-level go-kart extravagant, probably the first track of its kind. The
track, the biggest in Wisconsin Dells. As their fame and track wound through lush landscapes, went under a
fortune grow, so did their opposition. waterfall, and was a huge hit, doing more business
Nick Laskaris
”
“Pop was a very proud Greek,” remember Nick. than the eight tracks on the original property.
“He'd been captured by the Germans from his village “We became the benchmark for go-kart tracks for
during World War II, escaped, and carried his Greek Wisconsin Dells. In fact, I caught the owners of other
pride with him. He would always say 'The Greeks tracks on our property measuring our bridges, using
should always be number one,’ and I think his attitude our specs. Their parks mimicked our park.”
made him some enemies in the Dells. Here was my It was time for Big Chief Go-Karts to up the ante.
dad, a foreigner who had come into a community that
was controlled by three or four families, and here he The Coaster Cometh
was 'poking' them, competing with them. The original “In 1994 I met Denise and Randy Larrick of Custom
hot dog stand was acceptable, but Big Chief Go-Karts Coasters. I'd always wanted to build a rollercoaster, and
was something else, beating all the competition.” convinced the Larricks to come to the Dells. Pop
The first sign of opposition came when the company disagreed, and he didn't listen to the increased numbers
running the ducks, who had been providing Big Chief that coasters always give to parks. Finally he – I was as
Go-Karts with all that free advertising, decided to persistent as he was – and the Larricks looked at our
change their trails. property. They gave us a cheap price for the Cyclops in
“They were definitely trying to do us out of business. 1995, $400,000. One train, no transfer track. Our
Pop responded by purchasing 35 acres right on the attendance increased about 45%, and we killed our
strip, and it ended up being the best thing we ever did. competition. We built Pegasus in 1996, and attendance
The duck company didn't know it, but they actually did increased about 20%. In 1997 it was Zeus, another big
us a favour.” increase. So my passion for the amusement industry
Around this time Nick was 25 years year old, and ignited due to the coasters, in a way the go-karts
beset with his own personal opposition: a brain tumour. hadn't. And Pop, with his usual Greek stubbornness,
It was inoperable, and he was given three months to had a hard time admitting he was wrong.”
live. But like his father, Nick was tough, didn't take no In 1998, the Laskaris family bought more property,
for an answer, and met his opposition head-on. another 28 acres, for $2.8 million, along the Strip.
“While we'd had plenty of acreage, we only had
250 actual frontage feet on the strip. This purchase
gave us more frontage than any single property owner
along the strip. That allowed us to build our Trojan
Horse, giving us the visual we needed on The Strip.”
The go-karts climbed up to and travelled through
the hollow cavity of the famous horse from Greek
mythology. The next year, 1999, the Laskaris bought
out their go-kart neighbours for $4 million, giving
them another 25 acres.
With all this success, young Nick still had his battles.
TOP RIGHT: The Trojan
The brain tumour returned in 2001, sending him back
horse/go-kart track RIGHT: The
to the Mayo Clinic. The tumour was removed and Nick
wooden coasters Cyclops & Zeus
went through a stem cell transplant.
38 FEBRUARY 2010
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