Silver Dollar City's Newcomer "Outlaw Run" Nearly Causes 3-Way Tie for #1
Note: Scroll to the bottom for links to the results for nearly 200 wooden roller coasters worldwide.
Six Flags Great Adventure's "El Toro" remained #1 in 2013, becoming the first coaster to be #1 in the
Wooden Coaster Poll four times. "El Toro" was preferred over every other wood coaster among mutual riders
except for #3 "Outlaw Run". The 64 people who had ridden both "El Toro" and "Outlaw Run" were evenly split
with 32 preferring each coaster.
#2 "T Express" lost only to "El Toro" among mutual-riders 8 to 5. "T Express" won a narrow 3 to 2 victory over
#3 "Outlaw Run" among the few voters who had ridden both and expressed a preference. It is the sixth straight
year in the top three for the South Korean ride.
#3 "Outlaw Run" came very close to debuting at #1. It was the only coaster in the official results to be preferred
to its riders' favorite steel coaster (31 to 26).
"Boulder Dash" is ranked #4 in 2013. Consistently good, it has finshed in the top six in each of its 14 years.
Mutual-riders preferred only the top three coasters to "Boulder Dash" among all officially placed wooden coasters.
#5 "Phoenix" continues to defy time. It finished #4 in 1994, when only three of the 2013 top 48 were yet built!
Waldameer's "Ravine Flyer II" remains strong at #6, in this its sixth year in the poll.
Three-time #1 "The Voyage" is #7 in 2013. It remains the top coaster at Holiday World, the only park with three
wooden coasters in the Top 50.
Liseberg's "Balder" is the top European finisher this year at #8. It has finished 8th or better in all of its 11 years.
"Dauling Dragon" of China's Happy Valley was next. 17 DD riders took the poll this year, compared to 11 last year.
This year the right track finished higher at #9, left track at #10.
The five new for 2013 coasters were all given high marks by those who have ridden them:
The aforementioned "Outlaw Run" nearly topping the poll before settling at #3.
"Gold Striker" at California's Great America impressed those who rode it, finishing tied for #13 in the world.
Fun Spot America's "White Lightning" debuts at #30, ridden by an impressive 66 voters in its first year.
Knoebels "Flying Turns" finished at #57 in the world (but only #3 in the park).
"Fjord Flying Dragon" at Happy Valley Tianjin was ranked very highly by the 4 voters who had ridden it.
It would have been #10 in the world if enough of its riders had participated in the poll.
Special thanks to the 581 people who took the time to participate in the 2013 poll (all 581 ballots)
and more than two dozen great roller coaster sites that linked to the poll.
At the other end of the poll, "The Bandit" at Germany's Movie Park outdueled 3-time last place finisher "Anaconda"
to take the bottom spot in the poll. Mutual riders preferred Anaconda 30 to 26.
You may notice that there are two entries for Hades: Hades and Hades 360. Only "Hades" was on the ballot as I had
neglected to change the name to "Hades 360" before the poll started. It seemed that since the poll was under way, the
easiest fix would be to wait and change the name after all ballots had been received. Not wanting to waste the ranking
by people who had not ridden it this year, I left those as Hades, and changed the votes for all who had ridden it this year
to Hades 360. The interesting result is that the 70 voters who had ridden Hades but not this year ranked it very close to
where it finished last year at #31 whereas the 44 voters who had ridden it this year placed Hades 360 near the bottom
of the poll at #168. Hopefully, it can someday run again like the Top 10 ride it was in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
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 was preferred to Ravine Flyer II
100 to 12 among those who had ridden both coasters.
See the link to the full 196x196 mutual rider comparison spreadsheet below.
The "Favorite Steel" coaster would have placed #1 if it were included in the final results.
INACTIVE LINKS BELOW WILL BECOME ACTIVE AS THEY ARE COMPLETED IN THE COMING WEEKS: