Wok racing has been developed by the German TV host and entertainer Stefan Raab: 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.
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
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.[citation needed]
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: The "World Wok Racing Championships" (German: Wok-WM, German pronunciation: [ˈvɔk.veːˌɛm], lit. Wok Worldcup) are 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.[1]
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
2014
Otelo team
Seldwyn Morgan, Hanukkah Wallace, Marvin Dixon, Wayne Blackwood
2015
Europa Versicherungen/Österreich team
Markus Prock, Ulrike Kriegler, Marc Pircher, Janine Flock
Records
Speed records
One-Person-Wok
Place
Speed in km/h
Holder
Year
Innsbruck
91.70
Georg Hackl
2007
Altenberg
81.80
2008
Winterberg
105.40
2009
Oberhof
69.40
2010
Königsee
88.20
2012
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
Kinetic sculpture race
Portland Urban Iditarod
Shopping cart race
Wife carrying
Zoobomb
References
^"Gerichtsurteil: Schleichwerbung bei Stefan Raabs "Wok WM" - Nachrichten Fernsehen - WELT ONLINE". Die Welt. December 12, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
"Raabs WM-Show: Wenn Calli in den Wok gewuchtet wird - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten - Kultur". Der Spiegel. March 9, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
"Wok-WM: Kugelblitz Ailton strandet im Eiskanal - Nachrichten Fernsehen - WELT ONLINE". Die Welt. March 3, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
.jpg/440px-Wok_WM_2006_SEAT-Hackl-4er-Wok-Team_im_Zieleinlauf_(cropped).jpg)
November 6, 2003: Winterberg
Stefan Raab
Joey Kelly