A marathon ride to raise money to repair the sixth-oldest wooden roller coaster in the country was derailed by a mechanical problem with the 65-year-old thrill ride.

Roller coaster enthusiasts were turned away from a planned 12-hour ride on the Blue Streak on Monday after officials at Conneaut Lake Park said they needed to repair the 2,900-foot coaster.

"It was disappointing, but we don't want to hurt the coaster. We want to help it," said Kelly Petrachkoff of Salem, Ohio.

Don Schanz, the park's maintenance director, said a welding crew from Youngstown will fix the ride and it will be running again when the park opens Wednesday.

"We just didn't quite make it this year," Schanz said.

The marathon, which has been rescheduled for Aug. 19, raises money to keep the historic roller coaster running. Last year, the 12-hour-long ride raised $3,300 to supplement the $30,000 the cash-strapped park spends to keep rides running each year.

The 109-year-old amusement park has struggled since it closed in 1995 and 1996 after two of its three private owners went bankrupt.

The park is being run by a court-appointed trustee and opened last year with the help of $250,000 from investors.

Conneaut Lake Park made $2.15 million in sales last summer and turned a $300,000 profit. But the park still owes about $500,000.