Two #1's in 2005 Steel Poll!

Note: Scroll to the bottom for links to the results for all 300+ steel roller coasters in the poll.

    For the fifth year in a row, the same two steel roller coasters are in the top two of the poll.
This year, due to some questionable ballots and the narrow margins involved, Germany's 
Expedition GeForce and SFNE's Superman: Ride of Steel have been declared co-winners.
Expedition GeForce was preferred 9 to 5 among mutual riders but had mutual rider losses
to two lower ranked European rides.

    Millennium Force regained third place in the poll, a position it has held in each of its years in the poll 
except 2004 when it slipped to #4.  Longtime European favorite Nemesis climbed to a best ever fourth place
finish.  Katun finished a best-ever (by far) fifth place, making three European rides in the top five.  Nitro is in
the top six for the fifth straight year. 

    Pyrenees impressed the riders who made it to Japan this year enough to be voted #7 in the world
and tops in the far east.  Montu climbed to #8 this year while the Maryland version of Superman dropped
to #9, just edging ahead of #10 Sheikra.   Note that Montu was reordered down two spots manually as it
had more losses and ties than two coasters with lower winning percentages. 

    Sheikra finished as the highest ranked of the new for 2005 rides, although #7 Pyrenees had never had 
enough riders take the poll to be ranked before.  Other notable debuts (new for 2005 or first time ranked): 
#20 Kingda Ka, #30 Powder Keg, #34 Orochi.

   "Favorite Wood Coaster" was ranked 4th this year. 




    Within the top 15, the mutual rider tiebreaker was used twice to separate coasters that had
the same number of blemishes (losses + (ties/2)) on their record....note that there are two pairs
of coasters for which the coaster with the marginally better winning percentage (due to more valid
comparisons against much lower rated coasters) is the lower ranked one of the pair.

    With the addition of Sheikra, Busch Gardens Tampa is now the park with the top steel coaster duo 
(#8 Montu, #10 Sheikra),  and with #24 Kumba it also has the top rated trio.

    The following chart shows the mutual rider comparisons for the top 13 coasters (including 
"Favorite Wood").  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 co-#1 Superman won the comparison with #3 Millennium Force by a whopping 53 to 8 margin.




Note that any links below that are not yet active will be soon (as those reports are completed).