Wok racing has been developed by the German TV host and entertainer
Stefan RaabStefan Konrad Raab is a German entertainer, music producer, singer and comedian. He attended Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn...
: Modified
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
wokA wok is a versatile round-bottomed cooking vessel originating in China. It is used especially in East and Southeast Asia. South Asia also uses a similarly-shaped vessel known as a karahi...
s 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.
History
Wok racing was inspired by a bet in the German TV show
Wetten, dass..?Wetten, dass..? is a German language game and entertainment TV show. It is the most successful television show in Europe....
. In November 2003, the
First official Wok World Championship was broadcasted from
WinterbergWinterberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Winterberg is located in the middle of the Sauerland, at the source of the Ruhr and Lenne river.- Neighbouring municipalities:* Hallenberg* Medebach...
. The immediate success led to the second world championship in
InnsbruckInnsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal , which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some south of Innsbruck...
on 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
lugeA luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Luge is also the name of the sport which involves racing with such sleds...
champion
Georg HacklGeorg Hackl is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion...
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.
Equipment
The typical racing woks are the ordinary round-bottomed Chinese pans, usually directly imported from
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The only modifications are that the bottom is reinforced with an
epoxyEpoxy or polyepoxide is a thermosetting polymer formed from reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener". Epoxy has a wide range of applications, including fiber-reinforced plastic materials and general purpose adhesives.- Chemistry :...
filling and the edges of the wok are coated with
polyurethaneA polyurethane, IUPAC abbreviation PUR, but commonly abbreviated PU, is any polymer consisting of a chain of organic units joined by urethane links...
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 equipmentIn ice hockey, players use specialized equipment both to facilitate the play of the game and for protection.- Background :The hard surfaces of the ice and boards, pucks flying at high speed , and other players maneuvering pose a multitude of inherent safety hazards...
. To further reduce
frictionFriction is the force resisting the relative lateral motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, or material elements in contact. It is usually subdivided into several varieties:...
and the risk of injuries, the athletes wear
ladleA ladle is a type of spoon used to scoop up and serve soup or other liquids. Although designs vary, a typical ladle has a long handle terminating in a deep bowl, frequently with the bowl oriented at an angle to the handle to facilitate lifting liquid out of a pot or other vessel and conveying it...
s under their feet.
To improve performance, the underside of the woks are often heated with a blowlamp before the race.
Advertising controversy
Public wok Racing is only practiced once a year: The so-called "World Wok Racing Championships" are aired as special edition of Raab's show
TV totalTV total is a German late-night television comedy talk show that has run since March 8, 1999, on ProSieben and is currently aired at around 23:15 from Monday to Thursday....
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.
Venues
November 6, 2003:
WinterbergWinterberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Winterberg is located in the middle of the Sauerland, at the source of the Ruhr and Lenne river.- Neighbouring municipalities:* Hallenberg* Medebach...
March 4, 2004:
InnsbruckInnsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal , which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some south of Innsbruck...
March 5, 2005:
WinterbergWinterberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Winterberg is located in the middle of the Sauerland, at the source of the Ruhr and Lenne river.- Neighbouring municipalities:* Hallenberg* Medebach...
March 11, 2006:
InnsbruckInnsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal , which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some south of Innsbruck...
March 9, 2007:
InnsbruckInnsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal , which provides access to the Brenner Pass, some south of Innsbruck...
March 8, 2008:
AltenbergAltenberg is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, close to the border with the Czech Republic, 15 km northwest of Teplice, and 32 km south of Dresden....
March 7, 2009:
WinterbergWinterberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Winterberg is located in the middle of the Sauerland, at the source of the Ruhr and Lenne river.- Neighbouring municipalities:* Hallenberg* Medebach...
One-person Wok
| Year |
World Champion |
| 2003 |
Germany Stefan Raab Stefan Konrad Raab is a German entertainer, music producer, singer and comedian. He attended Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn...
|
| 2004 |
Germany Georg Hackl Georg Hackl is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion...
|
| 2005 |
Germany Georg Hackl Georg Hackl is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion...
|
| 2006 |
Ireland Joey Kelly |
| 2007 |
Germany Georg Hackl Georg Hackl is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion...
|
| 2008 |
Germany Georg Hackl Georg Hackl is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion...
|
| 2009 |
Germany Georg Hackl Georg Hackl is a German former luger who was three time Olympic and World Champion...
|
Four-person Wok
| Year |
World Champion |
Drivers |
| 2003 |
Dick Brave and the Backbeats |
Sasha & Co. |
| 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 Fisherman's Friend are strong menthol lozenges produced in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England.- History :Fisherman's Friend was originally developed by a young pharmacist named James Lofthouse in 1865 to relieve various respiratory problems suffered by fishermen working in the extreme conditions of the...
team |
Sandra Kiriasis Sandra Kiriasis is a German bobsledder who has competed since 2000.At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City she won silver in the two-woman event together with teammate Ulrike Holzner...
, Christoph LangenChristoph Langen is a German bobsledder who competed for the West German and German national team from 1985 to 2005 . Competing in three Winter Olympics, he won four medals with two golds and two bronzes...
, Silke KraushaarSilke Kraushaar-Pielach is a German luger who competed from 1995 to 2008...
, Susi ErdmannSusi Erdmann is an East German-German luger and bobsledder who competed from 1977 to 1998 in luge, then since 1999 in bobsleigh...
|
| 2007 |
SEATSEAT, S.A. is a Spanish automobile manufacturer founded in 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria , with initial Fiat assistance, and now a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group. Its headquarters are at Martorell near Barcelona, Spain...
team |
Sven HannawaldSven Hannawald is a former German ski jumper. Hannawald won the International Four Hills Tournament once...
, Susi Kentikian, Christina SurerChristina Surer is a race car driver from Switzerland. She has been racing for more than a decade, having spent several years in go-karts before participating in the Ford Superseries , Alfa 147 Cup and the Ford Fiesta Cup...
, Markus BeyerMarkus Beyer is a German boxer at super middleweight, who resides in Lilienthal, Germany. He represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics, in the light middleweight division...
|
| 2008 |
Frosta team |
Christoph Langen Christoph Langen is a German bobsledder who competed for the West German and German national team from 1985 to 2005 . Competing in three Winter Olympics, he won four medals with two golds and two bronzes...
, Susi ErdmannSusi Erdmann is an East German-German luger and bobsledder who competed from 1977 to 1998 in luge, then since 1999 in bobsleigh...
, Silke Kraushaar-Pielach, Felix LochFelix Loch is a German luger who has been competing since 1995 and has been on the German national team since 2006. He won four gold medals at the FIL World Luge Championships with two in the men's singles and two in the mixed team event...
|
| 2009 |
tv total team |
Stefan Raab, André Lange André Lange is a German bobsleder who has competed since 1998. Competing in two Winter Olympics, he has won three gold medals. He was born in Ilmenau, in Thuringia....
, Axel Stein, Björn DunkerbeckBjörn Dunkerbeck is a professional windsurfer who has won Professional Windsurfers Association Overall World Championships a record twelve times....
|
Speed records
One-Person-Wok
| Place |
Speed in km/h |
Holder |
Year |
| Winterberg |
89.98 |
Georg Hackl |
2005 |
| Innsbruck |
91.70 |
2007 |
Four-Person-Wok
| Place |
Speed in km/h |
Holder |
Year |
| Winterberg |
114.3 |
Elton & Friends |
2009 |
| Innsbruck |
97.00 |
FROSTA |
2006 |
Course Records
One-Person-Wok
| Place |
Time in seconds |
Holder |
Year |
| Winterberg |
47.621 |
Georg Hackl |
2005 |
| Innsbruck |
54.840 |
2007 |
Four-Person-Wok
| Place |
Time in seconds |
Holder |
Year |
| Winterberg |
57.117 |
TV total |
2005 |
| Innsbruck |
52.527 |
Fisherman's Friend |
2006 |
See also
- Idiotarod
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- Kinetic sculpture race
A Kinetic sculpture race is an organized contest of human-powered amphibious all-terrain works of art. The original event, the Kinetic Grand Championship in Humboldt County, California, is also called the "Triathlon of the Art World" because art and engineering are combined with physical...
- Portland Urban Iditarod
The Portland Urban Iditarod is a race in which teams of people pull shopping carts through a course over four miles through downtown Portland, Oregon. This race occurs on the first Saturday of March—the same date as the actual Alaskan Iditarod—and has also taken place in Los Angeles, San...
- Shopping cart race
- Wife carrying
Wife carrying , is a sport in which male competitors race while each carrying a female teammate. The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time...
- Zoobomb
Zoobomb is a weekly bicycling activity in Portland, Oregon during which participants ride bicycles rapidly downhill. Zoobomb began in Fall of 2002....