The top three steel coasters in 2002 repeated their positions this year.  Many more of 
this year's voters had ridden #1 Expedition GeForce and it was preferred to both #2 SFNE's 
Superman: Ride of Steel and #3 Millennium Force by mutual riders in ratios that approached 2:1.
EGF was also the only steel coaster to be preferred to the Favorite Wood Coaster category, 
which would have finished second in the poll, and EGF was preferred over the "FWC" by a 
convincing 28 to 12 vote.  SRoS:NE and Millennium Force each had two losses and, although MF 
was compared against more coasters at the lower end of the rankings and therefore had a greater 
winning percentage, SRoS was placed ahead of MF in second due to its 40 to 14 mutual rider
preference over Millennium Force.

    Edmonton's Mindbender became the oldest steel coaster to ever finish in the top four of 
this poll.  The Anton Schwarzkopf designed Mindbender had a previous best of 8th in the poll 
and has been operating since 1985, which is ancient by steel roller coaster standards (e.g. 
12 of this year's top 23 did not yet exist in 1999).  The majority of the few well travelled voters who had ridden it 
actually preferred it to #1 EGF and #2 SFNE Superman but Mindbender 
lost the mutual rider comparisons to #3 MF, #7 Phantom's Revenge, #8 Top Thrill Dragster, and 
tied #20 Raptor otherwise Mindbender, which is located indoors in West Edmonton Mall, would 
have finished even higher in the poll.  

    It should also be noted that Mindbender's #4 finish is the highest that a coaster with 
inversions has finished since Montu finished second in the 1999 poll.  #6 Nemesis is the only 
other coaster with inversions in this year's top ten.

    Nitro fell one spot to 5th, Nemesis climbed three spots to 6th, Phantom's Revenge climbed 
six spots to #7, Top Thrill Dragster debuted strongly at #8, 1999 #1 Six Flags Darien Lake's 
Superman: Ride of Steel fell four spots to #9, and Six Flags Holland's Goliath climbed six 
spots to round out the 2003 top ten.
    
    Amongst the top six rides, the mutual rider comparisons went as follows:
EGF was preferred to SRoS:NE 11 to 5, over MF 14-8, lost to MB 2-3, over Nitro 16-2, and over 
Nemesis 19-5. SRoS:NE was preferred to MF 40-14, lost to MB 2-4, over Nitro 44-8, and over 
Nemesis 12-5. MF was preferred to MB 6-1, to Nitro 45-18, and to Nemesis 17-9. Mindbender was 
preferred to Nitro 4-3 and to Nemesis 4-1.  Nitro lost the comparison to Nemesis 10-12.

The new (to the poll) for 2003 rides/categories debuted as follows: