From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Four-person wok in starting position (Note the ladles worn under the feet)
Wok racing is a sport developed by the German TV host and entertainer Stefan Raab. Modified Chinese woks are used to make timed runs down an Olympic bobsled track. There are competitions for one-person-woksleds and four-person-woksleds, the latter using four woks per sled. The World Wok Racing Championships are aired by the German television channel Pro7 as special edition of Raab's show "TV total".
Wok racing was inspired by a bet in the German tv show Wetten, dass..?. In November 2003 the "first official Wok world championship" was broadcast from Winterberg. The immediate success led to the second world championship in Innsbruck March 4, 2004. Participants are mostly b-list celebrities like pop singers, actors and tv hosts, but there are also known athletes that have ongoing professional careers in winter sports, like three time Olympic Champion Georg Hackl and the Jamaican Bobsled Team. The third championship took place again in Winterberg on March 5, 2005. In contrast to the previous championships there were two runs in which all contesters participated. The times of both runs were added. As a further innovation a qualifying round was created in which the participants had to jump from a trickski-jump (of course with woks) to determine the starting order. Further the sport event was professionalized. The 4-person-woksleds were sponsored by Nissan, IKEA and BRAVO Magazine.
The typical racing woks are the ordinary round-bottomed Chinese pans, usually directly imported from China. The only modifications are that the bottom is reinforced with an epoxy filling and the edges of the wok are coated with polyurethane foam to avoid injuries. Four-person woksleds consist of two pairs of woks, each of them is held together by a rounded frame. The two pairs are connected by a coupling. Due to the] before the race.
| Year |
World Champion |
Drivers |
| 2003 |
Dick Brave and the Backbeats |
Sasha & Co. |
| 2004 |
Pro7 team |
Ralf Zacherl, Stefan Gödde, Dominik Bachmair, Simon Gosejohann |
| 2005 |
Pro7 team |
Joey Kelly, Stefan Gödde, Charlotte Engelhardt, Lukas Hilbert |
| 2006 |
Fisherman's Friend team |
Sandra Kiriasis, Christoph Langen, Silke Kraushaar, Susi Erdmann |
| 2007 |
SEAT team |
Sven Hannawald, Susi Kentikian, Christina Surer, Markus Beyer |
- Speed Records
- Winterberg:
- One-Person-Wok: 89.98 km/h (Georg Hackl, 2005)
- Four-Person-Wok: 109.58 km/h (Nissan Racing Team, 2005)
- Innsbruck:
- One-Person-Wok: 91.70 km/h (Georg Hackl, 2007)
- Four-Person-Wok: 97.00 km/h (FROSTA, 2006)
- Course Records
- Winterberg:
- One-Person-Wok: 47.621 seconds (Georg Hackl, 2005)
- Four-Person-Wok: 57.117 seconds (TV total, 2005)
- Innsbruck:
- One-Person-Wok: 54.840 seconds (Georg Hackl, 2007)
- Four-Person-Wok: 52.527 seconds (Fisherman's Friend, 2006)
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|
| Four-person Wok |
| Rank |
Team |
Time |
| 1 |
Fisherman's Friend Gold-Wok |
1:46.960 |
| 2 |
Seat Hackl-Wok |
+ 1.084 |
| 3 |
betandwin Sport-Wok |
+ 3.765 |
| 4 |
Mister+Lady Jeans Ladies-Wok |
+ 4.057 |
| 5 |
Pro7 Märchen-Wok |
+ 4.303 |
|