Wok racing

Last updated
Wok Racing
Wok WM 2006 SEAT-Hackl-4er-Wok-Team im Zieleinlauf (cropped).jpg
Georg Hackl's four-person woksled during the Wok World Championship 2006 in Innsbruck
First played2003
Characteristics
Team membersTeams of 1 or 4
TypeWinter sport, Time trial
Equipment Wok
Venue Bobsleigh tracks

Wok racing is a sport developed by the German TV host and entertainer Stefan Raab in which modified woks are used to make timed runs down an Olympic bobsleigh track. There are competitions for one-person woksleds and four-person woksleds, the latter using four woks per sled.

Contents

History

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 on March 4, 2004. Participants are mostly b-list celebrities like musical artists, actors, and TV hosts, but there are also known athletes that have ongoing professional careers in winter sports, like three-time Olympic luge 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 with woks to determine the starting order. Further the sport event was professionalized.[ citation needed ]

Equipment

An ordinary wok Wok 2.jpg
An ordinary wok

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 rather risky nature of the sport the participants wear heavy protective gear, usually similar to ice hockey equipment. To further reduce friction and the risk of injuries, the athletes wear ladles under their feet. [1]

To improve performance, the undersides of the woks are often heated with a blowlamp before the race.[ citation needed ]

Advertising controversy

Public wok racing is only practiced once a year at The "World Wok Racing Championships" (German: Wok-WM, German pronunciation: [ˈvɔk.veːˌɛm] , lit. Wok Worldcup) which is aired as special edition of Raab's show TV total on the German television channel ProSieben. The network used to declare these broadcasts as sporting events. Under German law that allowed the network to treat the massive corporate sponsorship of the event as incidental advertising which didn't count against Germany's strict rules regarding time limits for TV commercials. After a Berlin court ruling in 2009, however, the shows have to be labeled as an infomercial, since – unlike a regular sporting event – the races are explicitly staged for the TV broadcast, and there is strong evidence that the profits of the event sponsorship directly benefit the network. [2]

World Wok Racing Championships

Venues

Ranking

One-person Wok

Stefan Raab and Georg Hackl at the Wok-WM 2008 Stefan Raab WokWM2008 001.jpg
Stefan Raab and Georg Hackl at the Wok-WM 2008
YearGoldSilverBronze
2003 Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Raab Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Germany.svg Detlef Soost
2004 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Raab
2005 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Raab Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly
2006 Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Raab
2007 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Raab
2008 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Austria.svg Christian Clerici Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly
2009 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Germany.svg Felix Loch Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly
2010 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Austria.svg Christian Clerici
2011 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Germany.svg Felix Loch Flag of Bulgaria.svg Lucy Diakovska
2012 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Bulgaria.svg Lucy Diakovska Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly
2013 Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Bulgaria.svg Lucy Diakovska Flag of Italy.svg Armin Zöggeler
2014 Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Italy.svg Armin Zöggeler
2015 Flag of Italy.svg Armin Zöggeler Flag of Germany.svg Georg Hackl Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly
2022 Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Greece.svg Lucas Cordalis Flag of Turkey.svg Jolina Mennen
2023 Flag of Ireland.svg Joey Kelly Flag of Italy.svg Armin Zöggeler Flag of Germany.svg Sophia Thiel

Four-person Wok

YearTeamDrivers
2003 Dick Brave and the Backbeats Sascha Schmitz, Andre Tolba, Felix Wiegand, Martell Beigang
2004 ProSieben team Ralf Zacherl, Stefan Gödde, Dominik Bachmair, Simon Gosejohann
2005 ProSieben 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
2008 Frosta team Christoph Langen, Susi Erdmann, Silke Kraushaar, Felix Loch
2009 TV total team Stefan Raab, André Lange, Axel Stein, Björn Dunkerbeck
2010 TV total team Stefan Raab, André Lange, Axel Stein, Björn Dunkerbeck
2011 Babybel team Sandra Kiriasis, Tatjana Hüfner, Manuel Machata, Christoph Langen
2012 TV total team Stefan Raab, Felix Loch, Manuel Machata, Tim Lobinger
2013 TV total team Stefan Raab, Felix Loch, Manuel Machata, Steffen Henssler
2014Otelo team Seldwyn Morgan, Hanukkah Wallace, Marvin Dixon, Wayne Blackwood
2015Europa Versicherungen/Austria team Markus Prock, Ulrike Kriegler, Marc Pircher, Janine Flock
2022 Chocomel/Germany team 3 Johannes Ludwig, Felix von Jascheroff, Francesco Friedrich, Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle
2023Zoll-Karriere/Germany team 2 Sven Hannawald, Thore Schölermann, Pascal Hens, Thorsten Legat

Records

Speed records

One-Person-Wok
PlaceSpeed in km/hHolderYear
Innsbruck91.70Georg Hackl2007
Altenberg81.802008
Winterberg105.402009
Oberhof69.402010
Königsee88.202012
Four-Person-Wok
PlaceSpeed in km/hHolderYear
Winterberg114.3Elton & Friends2009
Innsbruck97.00FROSTA2006

Course Records

One-Person-Wok
PlaceTime in secondsHolderYear
Winterberg47.621Georg Hackl2005
Innsbruck54.8402007
Four-Person-Wok
PlaceTime in secondsHolderYear
Winterberg57.117TV total2005
Innsbruck52.527Fisherman's Friend2006

See also

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References

  1. "Wok Racing Causes Stir in Germany". www.wsj.com. p. 1:23. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  2. "Gerichtsurteil: Schleichwerbung bei Stefan Raabs "Wok WM" - Nachrichten Fernsehen - WELT ONLINE". Die Welt . December 12, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2012.