FINAL RESULTS: 2002 Internet Wooden Tracked Roller Coaster Poll
Michigan's Shivering Timbers reclaimed the top spot for the first time
since its debut in 1998. Connecticut's Boulder Dash climbed one spot over
last year to finish second and Idaho's Tremors also climbed one spot to
finish third. Longtime favorites Raven and Comet round out this year's top five.
The biggest shake-up in the top ten was the drop of longtime European
favorites Tonnerre de Zeus and Megafobia from #1 and #5 to #10 and #12
respectively. Neither ride was reportedly running at its best in the few hours
when the large contingent of American enthusiasts visited them this summer.
The voting was fairly tight amongst the top three as Boulder Dash held
the top spot for the first half of the voting and the third spot for much of
the second half before edging back ahead of Tremors for second.
One pair of coasters in the top 20 was manually reordered this year.
Coaster was moved ahead of Tonnerre de Zeus. The promoted coaster had fewer blemishes
(losses + ties/2) on its record and beat the other head to head but was behind
on straight winning percentage due to fewer valid comparisons (wins) to
coasters in the bottom tier.
The two new rides that had enough riders to be included, Spain's Wild Wild West
and Indiana's Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain, placed #99 and 104 respectively.
Other coasters that placed better than ever (relatively) this year include
Raven at #4 (which was bettered this year only by coasters that did not exist
when it finished #2 in 1995), Phoenix at #6, Cornball Express at #14, Grand National at #18,
Viper at #25, Loup Garou at #26, Excalibur at #27, Dania Beach Hurricane at #28,
The Boss at #30, Thunder Run at #39 and Texas Cyclone at #71.
#5 Comet (NY), #6 Phoenix, and #9 Vancouver's Coaster waged a close battle for
the top spot in the "Over 40" division. These three designs have been able
to withstand the tests of time. Coaster, the only one of these three
rides still located at its original site, is now threatened with relocation
or worse in the near future.
It is quite amazing to note the number of rides originally designed and
built in the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's and one from as long ago
as 1917 still in the top 60. Equally amazing is that 33 of the top 50 rides
did not yet exist in 1994.
Silverwood and Holiday World both have arguments for being the park with
the best wooden coaster duo. Tremors edged Raven in ranking and
won the head to head comparison but The Legend finished several spots ahead of
Timber Terror and won the mutual rider comparison convincingly.
Among the top five head-to-head: ST was preferred 37-28-3 over BD,
18-10-1 over Tremors, 73-29-2 over Raven, and 40-10 over Comet among those riders
who had ridden both. BD was preferred 14-10 over Tremors, 41-26-4 over Raven,
and 50-11 over Comet. Tremors was preferred 15-11-2 over Raven and 12-6-1 over
Comet. Raven was preferred to Comet 37-16.
Also of note is that #161 Hercules was preferred to California's #162 The Grizzly
by a convincing 36-13-6 vote.
You may see all 14,706 head-to-head comparisons between the 172 coasters
(including fav steel) that had riders take the poll this year by downloading
the spreadsheet from the website http://www.geocities.com/wcoasterpoll
My Favorite Steel category continued its climb in the rankings and
would have actually finished first this year. My Favorite Steel edged
Shivering Timbers 41-39-14 and lost only to Tremors 11-13-2 in the head to head
voting. Steel coaster designers have improved their non-inverting wood-like
designs in the last five years and that has been reflected in the finish of the
My Favorite Steel category in this poll: 12th in 1997 & 1998, 11th in 1999,
8th in 2000, 4th in 2001, and 1st in 2002.
Steel coaster fans: Remember to cast your ballot by December 15th, 2002 in
the Internet Steel Coaster Poll. Ballots are at http://www.geocities.com/wcoasterpoll
The following results are presented in a tabular format showing 1994
through 2002 placements, giving a better feel for trends and consistencies
in the poll. When viewing this chart, one should expect a coaster's rank
to drop slightly from year to year due to additional coasters debuting in
the poll. Special attention should be paid to the RIDERS column as the
fewer the number of riders, the greater the margin of error.