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For ‘Fury Guy’ McLain Waddell, riding Carowinds’ tallest and fastest roller coaster has become a key part of his lifestyle
McLain Waddell, 41, started riding Fury 325 at Carowinds in 2015 and found it to be a calming influence. He rides it up to 40 times a day and logged his 14,000th ride earlier this month. (Photo courtesy of McLain Waddell)
by Cooper Hall
The first time McLain Waddell rode Fury 325, he lost his car keys.
Waddell wasn’t an avid roller coaster enthusiast — in fact, they usually just made him sick. But in March 2015, he made the 25-minute drive to Carowinds from his home in Indian Trail to try the park’s new record-breaking coaster, featuring a 325-foot drop and speeds up to 95 mph.
As soon as he realized his keys were missing after his first ride, familiar feelings of anxiety began to build. Stuck at Carowinds, waiting to get his backup car keys, he decided he might as well ride again.
He ended up riding 10 times that day, and with each time, he had a stronger feeling of something unexpected.
“I just felt amazingly calm and clear,” Waddell said.
Fast-forward to the Fourth of July weekend of this year, when Waddell completed his 14,000th ride on Fury. Buckling into the coaster is now part of his routine.
Now 41, Waddell has struggled with anxiety and Bipolar II disorder since he was in high school. These conditions, and treating them, were further complicated by a traumatic brain injury from a car accident later in high school. Mental health became an ongoing challenge in Waddell’s life.
He tried various medicines and therapies. Some were effective, but many left him frustrated and unsatisfied.
Nothing Waddell had tried prior to March 2015 had given him the feeling he got after riding Fury that first day. He wasn’t sure why Fury helped, but he knew it was a feeling he wanted to explore. So, he bought a season pass to Carowinds and kept riding.
In fact, riding Fury became part of Waddell’s daily routine. He’d go in the morning to wake himself up — when the park was serene, crowds were quieter and the heat wasn’t so bad — or he’d end his days there to wind down.
“After you hit 20 laps, I tell people, you get high on Fury,” he said, adding that he often feels residual effects of the ride for a few days after.
He’d ride anywhere from 15 to 40 times each trip, usually beginning to feel a wave of calmness after five to six go-arounds. The more he rode, the better he felt.
“This truly is the best therapy I've had ever since my accident,” Waddell said.
Music has also been helpful therapy for Waddell. So, he began to pair electronic dance music songs with his laps on the coaster. He has a playlist of 352 songs that match the big drop of the ride, featuring artists like Marshmello, Fall Out Boy and Galantis.
The playlist and riding Fury have become intertwined.
“If I'm at home or I'm on the road, and I need a little bit of meditation, I crank up the music I ride Fury on, my brain fires and does some of the same things that it does when I ride,” Waddell said.
At the beginning of this journey, after seeing Waddell every day for months, Carowinds’ staff and Pat Jones, the park’s former vice president and general manager, took to calling him “Fury Guy.”
The name stuck, finding its way to Waddell’s social media, and even onto his car’s license plate. Waddell’s Facebook page is a digital diary of his Fury 325 journey, showcasing almost every snapshot of his rides, hands often positioned in finger guns, hair blown back by the rocketing drop.
In this time at the park, Waddell has met other dedicated Fury riders. AJ Logan and Darryl Thompson, who are each often referred to as “Fury Man,” have both logged thousands of rides, or “laps.”
Self-proclaimed roller coaster junkie Yong Park and his son, Jayden, are also frequent Fury visitors and, much like Waddell, ride it as a calming, therapeutic practice.
Jayden Park, 26, has severe autism. Yong Park has been taking his son on rides since he was 4 years old. Fury is the closest roller coaster to the Parks’ home in the Spartanburg, S.C., area, and is the duo’s favorite ride at Carowinds. The Parks have completed thousands of rides on Fury.
After coaster laps, Yong Park notices that his son is calmer, has more regulated sleep and, although nonverbal, is more motivated to engage in different forms of communication.
Neither Waddell nor Park have had formal testing done on this unconventional therapeutic practice.
Allan Howe, a Charlotte-based therapist, said he sometimes encourages his patients, particularly children, to visit Carowinds to face their fears.
“They can feel the adrenaline start to increase as they're going up the hill, and then it releases, and it's like, ‘Oh, that actually was really fun,’” Howe said. “And so it's just this way of really fighting back the anxiety of whatever that situation is, like, yeah, OK, it's OK to face it, and also know and prove to yourself that you're going to be OK.”
He noted that adrenaline and anxiety can feel very similar — sweaty palms, a racing heart — so the release of adrenaline after a roller coaster may leave a person feeling calmer.
Howe said that roller coasters may act as a distracting stimulus but can only be a healthy coping mechanism when used with other forms of therapy.
While Fury 325 is a favorite for Waddell, other rides offer similar feelings of clarity. He ranks Millennium Force at Cedar Point and Lightning Rod at Dollywood as close seconds to Fury 325.
Waddell still tries to buckle into Fury as often as he can. However, his job as a regional manager with Allstate Protection Plans comes with frequent travel, so his visits are more sporadic than they used to be. So far this season, he has visited Carowinds 36 times, averaging 13 to 14 rides a trip and using a fast pass to cut down his wait times.
On July 5, Waddell recorded his 14,000th lap. With that achievement he has spent approximately 800 hours, or 33 days of his life, riding Fury 325.
Waddell said that, with less energy needed to keep himself calm, he has been able to spend the past 10 years working on other aspects of his mental health and to improve his relationship with loved ones, something he calls “priceless.”
“I don't think I'm going to stop anytime soon, because it's given me so much,” he said. “I’m truly fortunate for it.”
Cooper Hall is a summer reporting intern for The Charlotte Ledger. She is a rising junior at UNC Chapel Hill, double-majoring in media and journalism and exercise and sport science. She can be reached at [email protected].
Today's supporting sponsor is PBS Charlotte. Wondering what politicians are thinking but not saying? Watch PBS Charlotte Fridays at 8 p.m. as former Governor Pat McCrory delivers no-spin answers. Stream anytime on demand at wtvi.org/unspun.
Lawmakers crack down on tax strategy ‘loophole’ used by Atrium Health; ‘The hospitals were taking a very unfair advantage,’ Finance chair says
A little-noticed provision in the state budget that was signed last week aims to shut down a tax strategy used by Atrium Health to exceed the state’s sales tax refund cap.
The change would require nonprofit and public hospital systems to file a single sales tax refund claim for all their related entities.
The proposal follows reporting by The Charlotte Ledger/NC Health News last year that found Atrium was filing separate sales tax refund claims — one as Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and the other as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, which does business as Atrium Health.
Critics said the arrangement allowed the health system to effectively sidestep the state's $45M annual sales tax refund cap; they said Atrium was "double dipping."
“The hospitals were taking a very unfair advantage,” said Rep. Julia Howard (R-Mocksville), who chairs the House Finance Committee. “They found a loophole and they were using it. … We put it in the budget so they can’t do that anymore.”
It was not immediately clear whether any other hospital system has filed multiple sales tax refund claims, whether any other systems are large enough to exceed the state's cap, or how much the state would save from the change.
Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Winston-Salem) said some lawmakers informally referred to the sales tax refund provision as the “Atrium rule” because Atrium was believed to be the system most affected. Atrium is the Charlotte region’s largest employer.
Atrium Health did not directly answer questions about the impact of the provision and whether it would change the way it files sales tax refund claims.
In an emailed statement, the hospital said, “We are committed to full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Our focus remains on serving patients and supporting the communities that depend on us.”
Previously, the hospital system said it filed separately “due to its legal structure.”
Nonprofits and public hospitals in North Carolina pay sales tax up front but can later request a refund from the state. Hospitals are, by far, the biggest beneficiaries of the program. —Michelle Crouch
Hundreds in Ballantyne protest planned Morrison Y sale; ‘We are going to fight for this thing’
Hundreds of protestors gathered outside the Morrison YMCA in Ballantyne on Sunday in support of keeping the branch open instead of having it sold to a church. The YMCA of Greater Charlotte said last month it would sell the facility to Moments of Hope Church for $42.5M, but community members have objected to the deal, saying they value the Y as a community gathering spot. “We are going to fight this thing,” organizer JD Hopper told the crowd, who held signs including “Moments of Nope,” “Save Our Y,” “My Wife’s Y Keeps Me Sane” and “My God Values Community Not Cash.” Check out our video of the protest on Instagram. (Photos: Tony Mecia/The Charlotte Ledger)
Labor union spent more on some city council members’ 2025 races than they spent on themselves, records show; union blasts new state law on airport lease negotiations
A labor union that supports the rights of workers at Charlotte’s airport spent big on last year’s City Council elections, pouring in $263,000 to back candidates — almost all of whom won.
Injecting big money into council races came as the union has been working to push the city to negotiate an airport lease with carriers, including American Airlines, that is more worker-friendly.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said in financial documents sent to The Ledger last week that it spent:
$97,268 to help the candidacy of JD Mazuera Arias for an east Charlotte council seat, in the form of mailers, canvassing and a radio ad. Arias defeated incumbent Marjorie Molina in the Democratic primary by 34 votes.
$85,568 to support Democrat Kimberly Owens, who defeated Republican Krista Bokhari for a south Charlotte seat by about 3,800 votes, 56%-43%.
$17,634 to support incumbent Democrat LaWana Mayfield, who easily won re-election to an at-large council seat in a six-person primary
$17,634 to support incumbent Democrat Dimple Ajmera, who easily won re-election to an at-large council seat in a six-person primary
$17,634 to support incumbent Democrat Victoria Watlington, who easily won re-election to an at-large council seat in a six-person primary
$11,000 to support incumbent Tiawana Brown, who lost in a Democratic primary race for a west Charlotte seat to challenger Joi Mayo
$7,778 to support incumbent Democrat James “Smuggie” Mitchell Jr., who easily won re-election to an at-large council seat in a six-person primary
$3,000 to support incumbent Renee Johnson, who easily beat challenger Wil Russell in a Democratic primary.
Seven of the eight candidates the SEIU backed won. The amount of the union’s spending was first reported by WFAE.
In several cases, the spending by the labor union dwarfs the amount the candidates spent themselves:
In the east Charlotte race, the $97,268 that the SEIU spent was more than the combined total spent by Mazuera Arias ($34,147) and Molina ($57,756), according to state campaign finance records.
In the south Charlotte race, the $85,568 that the SEIU spent to boost Owens was more than the $73,862 Owens reported spending on her campaign.
In the at-large race, the $17,634 spent to support Watlington was more than the $12,142 Watlington spent on her campaign.
There are no caps on the amount of money that independent groups can spend in support of political candidates. Independent groups cannot coordinate their spending with candidates’ campaigns.
Over the past few years, the SEIU has pushed for higher wages and better working conditions for contract workers at Charlotte’s airport, such as aircraft cabin cleaners, who work for contractors of American Airlines. The airport, which is owned by the city of Charlotte, is renegotiating the lease with American and other airlines.
The city has said that N.C. law prevents it from including provisions on subcontractor wages or benefits as a part of that lease. And a new section of law tucked into North Carolina’s budget this month further restricts the city’s abilities to help contract workers.
The new law makes clear that any lease between a unit of local government and a business cannot require the business to “set levels for wages, benefits or other terms and conditions of work,” and it says that local governments cannot “require any business to participate in any council, task force, committee or similar arrangement” designed to establish wages, benefits and other work rules.
In a statement last week, the SEIU called the new provision a “dead of night amendment snuck into a budget bill buried on page 532” and said it is “very anti-democratic.”
“This goes far beyond airport lease-term negotiations,” the union statement said. “This has effectively muzzled constituents and their locally elected representatives from taking action on issues of critical importance to their community.”
The city and the airlines extended their negotiations by a year and are expected to finish by next summer. It is expected to be a contentious issue. –Tony Mecia
New mayor’s first few days: low-key, no drama
If you were hoping that Charlotte’s new mayor would come out of the gates with pizzazz, making bold policy pronouncements and weighing in on contentious political issues, you might be disappointed.
But if you were hoping for someone who does his homework, speaks cautiously and is drama-free, you might think Rob Harrington is off to a strong start.
Harrington, a Robinson Bradshaw law partner who was sworn in July 1 to replace Vi Lyles, seems to be taking a low-key approach in his first days in office. Last week, he sat down for one-on-one, 15-minute interviews with 14 media outlets (including The Ledger), and we and others had a tricky time finding statements resembling news from a figure who seems determined to avoid making any.
Here are a few highlights from the conversation between Harrington and The Ledger’s Ashley Fahey:
On lease negotiations at the airport: “The airport has been, for generations, a crown jewel of Charlotte. It is perhaps more than anything else the engine that makes this city and the region work, and we have to jealously guard that. We have run that airport in not just a good but an exceptional way, and we need to continue to do that. … We need to continue to look for opportunities to bring resources to and provide opportunities for folks who are working there.”
On whether he has encountered any surprises in his first 10 days in office: “No. I think no surprises. I think it's reinforced the view that I've had from the outside … that folks are really committed to this venture, and we're coming at it from different angles, we've got different ideas and different priorities, but it's good to have the reinforcement that folks are working really hard and trying to do the best thing for the city.”
On how he would spend a day showing Charlotte to a visitor: “Two of my favorite institutions are the Gantt Center … [and] the Levine Museum of the New South, but there are so many places that you can take folks to show art. … Maybe we'd do a bus tour and see a little bit all day.”
On whether winning The Charlotte Ledger’s 40 Over 40 award in 2020 helped him become mayor: “[Laughter] Absolutely. Absolutely. It was a highlight. … The work that you guys have done, and others have done, to recognize some people earlier in career, and sometimes later in career, is really important. People need to be recognized and thanked. That’s human nature.”
In interviews with other outlets, he didn’t make much news on controversial topics such as I-77 toll lanes (“time is of the essence,” “we need to focus our efforts”) or data centers (“I don't think any of us have a position on what the regulation should look like”). He said he has spent his first few days meeting individually with council members. And he recorded a new greeting message at the airport.
Axios Charlotte disclosed that Harrington starts his day at 6:30 a.m., scans news headlines on his phone, typically has a granola bar and Diet Coke for breakfast and is “not a coffee person.”
QCity Metro further revealed that he declined to say whether he prefers the Charlotte Hornets or the Carolina Panthers, that he thinks if he weren’t a lawyer he’d be a preacher or a history professor, that his favorite political figure is Barack Obama and that the best piece of advice he’s received is “Do your best at everything.” –Tony Mecia
Say goodbye to paper vehicle registration cards and stickers: N.C. to go all-digital
License plate stickers and printed car registration cards are about to become historical relics in North Carolina: The state’s new budget calls for those to go all-electronic starting Oct. 1.
The Division of Motor Vehicles is still figuring out the details, but the plan is to shift the printed evidence of vehicle registration online as a money-saving measure.
You’ll still have to pay annual personal property taxes, registration fees and inspection costs, but proof that you’re up-to-date will be available on your phone or computer. If you want a printed record, you’ll have to print it out — or pay the DMV a fee to send you a printed card, a spokeswoman told a Greensboro TV station. —Tony Mecia
You might be interested in these Charlotte events
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
TUESDAY: “Public Policy Meeting,” 5-6:30 p.m., at Envision Charlotte, Innovation Barn, 932 Seigle Ave. Join Bryan Holladay, Public Policy Chair of the Charlotte Area Chamber of Commerce and George Dunlap, District 3 Representative for the Charlotte City Council, as they discuss relevant and ongoing political happenings in the city's west side areas. Registration requested. Free.
SATURDAY: “‘The Odyssey’ - Movie and Talkback,” 6:25-10:30 p.m., at Independent Picture House, 4237 Raleigh St. A post-film discussion with Tiffany Bryant-Jackson (Education Manager at Three Bone Theatre), Scott Tynes-Miller (owner of Troubadour Booksellers), Mia S. Willis (Cultural historian and Author) and William S. Davis (Film Studies at UNC Charlotte). The discussion will be moderated by Claire Lechtenberg, Director of Development & Marketing. The screening costs $13.50 if you are not a member of The Independent Picture House, but the post-film discussion is free.
JULY 25: “Charlotte Peruvian Festival,” 12-8:30 p.m., at Victoria Yards, 209 E. 7th St. Born in 2018, Charlotte Peruvian Festival spotlights Peruvian cultural, musical and gastronomic offerings. Come enjoy great live music by local artists, crafts by artisans, the best Peruvian food, Peruvian dances and even more at Victoria Yards. $20/ticket. Children 10 and under are free.
In brief
Legion Brewing sued: A minority investor in Charlotte-based Legion Brewing has sued the company, alleging it failed to provide required financial records and missed some loan and lease payments, as the brewery denies the allegations and says it has cooperated in good faith. (Observer)
IKEA planning store closing: IKEA will close its south Charlotte planning and pickup store on Providence Road by Aug. 31, ending the smaller-format location that offered design consultations and order pickup while keeping its full-size University City store open. (Observer)
Another Lake Norman toll lane? State transportation officials and I-77 Mobility Partners are studying a potential expansion of the I-77 express lanes through Lake Norman — including adding a second toll lane — though the proposal remains in its early stages and faces local opposition. (WSOC)
City to examine e-bike rules: Charlotte leaders are set to examine growing concerns about e-bike safety next month as residents report reckless riding and other cities adopt new rules. (WFAE)
Cash for former inmates: Mecklenburg County is one of two counties in North Carolina that is testing offering guaranteed payments to a select number of formerly incarcerated residents. Mecklenburg’s program offers former 60 randomly selected former inmates $600 a month for a year to help them stabilize finances and reduce the likelihood of returning to jail or prison. Mecklenburg commissioners allocated $500,000 for the pilot program. (N.C. Health News)
Ballet director to leave: Charlotte Ballet executive director Doug Singleton will leave this fall after more than 30 years with the organization to lead The Washington Ballet, as the company launches a national search for his successor. Former Apparo CEO Kim Lanphear will serve as interim executive director. (Ledger on LinkedIn)
Restaurant Week coming up: “Queen’s Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week” returns July 24-Aug. 2 with more than 120 restaurants across nine counties offering three-course prix fixe meals for $30–$55, including 11 first-time participants. More info.
Dress like a cow, get free food: Tuesday is Chick-fil-A’s Cow Appreciation Day: Dress like a cow and get a free entree. Details.
Loves me some internet: McFadden relishes trolling his critics
Controversial Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden, whose opponents have sought his resignation and attempted to force him from office, on where he stands regarding National Hot Dog Day (in an Instagram post last week — the sheriff’s office will be grilling hot dogs Wednesday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in First Ward Park):
