"El Toro" ties "T Express" for #1 in the 2010 Wooden Roller Coaster Poll
Note: Scroll to the bottom for links to the results for nearly 200 wooden roller coasters worldwide.
Six Flags Great Adventure's "El Toro" and Everland's "T Express" tied for #1 in the 2010 poll. El Toro has been in the top three
since 2006 but this is the first time it has been #1. T Express debuted at #1 in 2008 and finished #3 last year.
The 18 voters who had ridden both of these coasters and listed a preference were evenly split between them.
Boulder Dash was evidently running as well as ever in its 11th year as reflected by again placing in a relative best ever
#3 finish. Further evidence: El Toro was preferred to Boulder Dash among mutual riders by a slim 60 to 58 margin.
Knoebel's senior citizen "Phoenix" also finished in a relative best ever #4 position.
Waldameer's "Ravine Flyer II" finishes at #5 in the world for a second straight year.
3-Time #1 "The Voyage" fell all the way to #6 in this year's tightly contested top 11. It could certainly be argued that it
still deserves a higher ranking this year as it beat "Phoenix" and "Ravine Flyer II" handily and squeaked by "Boulder Dash" among
mutual riders. The mutual rider loss to "T Express" was by a 9 to 8 vote. Three losses to less ridden European rides and
another to a Japanese ride are what kept it from being ranked higher this year.
Liseberg's "Balder" finished in the top seven for the eighth straight year.
Colossos placed #8, its best ever ranking in this its tenth year in the poll.
Aska, standing but not operating again this year, placed #9.
Happy Valley Song's 'Fireball' fell one spot to #10 this year.
Toverland's 'Troy' rounds out this year's very tight #4 through #11 group.
Efteling's "Joris en de Draak" was the only truly new for 2010 wooden roller coaster. The "Water" half of this twin tracked
ride finished 25th, while the "Vuur" half debuted at #29 out of 180 Wooden Roller Coasters ranked in the poll.
Interestingly, Six Flags Great America's "Little Dipper" is ranked almost exactly where it was last year when it was located
at Kiddieland. No doubt more people rode it this year than ever before and 43 of those people took the poll.
Special thanks to the 489 people who took the time to participate in the 2010 poll (all 489 ballots)
and more than two dozen great roller coaster sites that linked to the poll.
Holiday World is again the park with the top wooden coaster duo (#6 The Voyage, #21 Raven),
and trio (including #41 The Legend).
Big news at the other end of the poll, California's "Grizzly" lost its bid to be last in the poll for the 16th
straight year! Walygator Parc's "Anaconda" took over the bottom spot this year, losing the mutual rider
comparison to Grizzly 12 to 6.
The following chart shows the mutual-rider comparisons for the top 12 coasters. Preferences are listed
for the people who rode each pair of coasters. The chart should be read from left to right along the line for
each of the top coasters listed at the left. For instance, it can be seen that El Toro and T Express were each
preferred by 9 of 18 mutual riders who listed a preference.
See the link to the full 181x181 mutual rider comparison spreadsheet below.
The "Favorite Steel" coaster would have placed #1 if it were included in the final results. Perhaps the upcoming Steel Poll
will shed some light on whether a specific steel coaster caused it to improve so much from last year's #5 placement.
INACTIVE LINKS BELOW WILL BECOME ACTIVE AS THEY ARE COMPLETED IN THE COMING WEEKS: