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Mitch Hawker Polls 2013


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Hey everyone! It's that time of the year again: the Mitch Hawker wood coaster poll is open. Here's a link! (I highly recommend Jordan Hatch's drag-and-drop ballot generator; it's way easier than editing the ballot text directly.)

If you're not familiar, Mitch Hawker's poll is a yearly poll of the coaster enthusiast community to see how rides around the world rank. It's fairly popular and usually has well over 500 entries (last year's had 635 ballots for the wood poll.) When the results are tallied, you can see overall results as well as specific categories for the results (how well each ride ranked vs. another, etc.)

There are folks that dislike the way users of a certain other site tend to skew the results in favor of certain international coasters. Whether that's an issue that concerns you or not, the nice thing about Mitch's poll is that you can see how many people who voted rode each ride. So if you don't like how high T Express at Lotte World, for instance, ranked, you can see that a whole 6 people rode it and disregard it. Or maybe you like those six people and value their opinion! Whatever floats your goat. Mitch's poll makes that kind of information easy to read and judge for yourself. It's a great poll if you're a numbers person.

For the heck of it, here's how my rankings ended up this year. Son of Beast, having been torn down, is no longer eligible for ranking in the polls. It's really weird not having a shoe-in for last place:

1. Boss, Six Flags St. Louis

2. Voyage, Holiday World

3. El Toro, Six Flags Great Adventure

4. Favorite Steel (It's Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion.)

5. Georgia Cyclone, Six Flags over Georgia

6. Ravine Flyer II, Waldameer

7. Cyclone, Luna Park (i.e. Coney Island New York)

8. Thunderbolt, Kennywood

9. Legend, Holiday World

10. Raven, Holiday World

11. American Thunder, Six Flags St. Louis

12. Racer, Kennywood

13. Blue Streak, Cedar Point

14. Thunderhead, Dollywood

15. Comet, Hersheypark

16. Hurler, Kings Dominion

17. Grizzly, Kings Dominion

18. American Eagle, Six Flags Great America

19. Beast, Kings Island

20. Viper, Six Flags Great America

21. Lightning Racer - Lightning, Hersheypark

22. Lightning Racer - Thunder, Hersheypark

23. Rebel Yell, Kings Dominion

24. Big Dipper, Camden Park

25. Racer, Kings Island

26. Mean Streak, Cedar Point

27. Screamin' Eagle, Six Flags St. Louis

28. Great American Scream Machine, Six Flags over Georgia

29. Jack Rabbit, Kennywood

30. Tornado, Stricker's Grove

31. Blue Streak, Conneaut Lake Park

32. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain, Indiana Beach

33. Wolverine Wildcat, Michigan's Adventure

34. Cornball Express, Indiana Beach

35. Sea Dragon, Jungle Jack's Landing

36. Comet, Waldameer

37. Teddy Bear, Stricker's Grove

38. Woodstock Express, Kings Island

39. Ghoster Coaster, Kings Dominion

40. Lil' Dipper, Camden Park

41. Shivering Timbers, Michigan's Adventure

42. Hoosier Hurricane, Indiana Beach

43. Zach's Zoomer, Michigan's Adventure

44. Rolling Thunder, Six Flags Great Adventure

45. Wildcat, Hersheypark

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Well, mine is in, granted I have not been on too many woodies (or steel coasters for that matter)...alas, these rides will be affected:

1. The Beast Kings Island OH,y,n,1
2. The Legend Holiday World IN,y,y,2
3. The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,y,3
4. My Favorite Steel (Diamondback @ Kings Island) Anypark Anywhere **,y,n,4
5. Raven Holiday World IN,y,y,5
6. Racer Kings Island OH,y,n,6
7. Hoosier Hurricane Indiana Beach IN,y,n,7
8. Woodstock Express Kings Island OH,y,n,8

2013 was not my best year for roller coasters peroid, BTW...one trip to Holiday World was all I got. Granted, that one trip was super fun. :P

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My votes:

  1. Favorite Steel (Maverick)
  2. Blue Streak (Cedar Point)
  3. The Voyage
  4. The Beast
  5. The Racer (Kings Island)
  6. The Raven
  7. Mean Streak
  8. The Legend
  9. Woodstock Express (Kings Island)

Maybe I caught Mean Streak on a good day. :\

Woodstock Express is at the bottom of the list because I haven't ridden it in years. Whenever I'm at KI I avoid Planet Snoopy.

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I might actually do the poll this year, so thanks for the heads up on this. I'll list my top 15 and then the bottom 5:

Top 15:

Boulder Dash

Voyage

Favorite Steel (Bizarro - SFNE)

El Toro

Shivering Timbers

Prowler

Thunderhead

Phoenix

Ravine Flyer II

Hellcat

Renegade

American Thunder

Hades

Raven

Apocalypse

Cornball Express

Bottom 5:

Son of Beast

Wildcat - Lake Compounce

Mean Streak

Wolverine Wildcat

Wilde Beast - Canada's Wonderland

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Might as well post my ballot:

1) Favorite Steel (Maverick)

2) Voyage

3) Thunderhead

4) Cornball Express

5) Shivering Timbers

6) The Beast

7) Raven

8) Blue Streak (CP)

9) Legend (HW)

10) Racer (KI)

11) Wolverine Wildcat

12) Hoosier Hurricane

13) Zach's Zoomer

14) Woodstock Express (KI)

15) Mean Streak

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like the results are in!

Top Ten Overall (out of 175 ranked coasters):

1) El Toro - Six Flags Great Adventure

2) T Express - Everland (South Korea)

3) Outlaw Run - Silver Dollar City

4) Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce

5) Pheonix - Knoebel's

6) Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer

7) The Voyage - Holiday World

8) Balder - Liseburg

9) Dauling Dragon (Right Side) - Happy Valley

10) Dauling Dragon (Left Side) - Happy Valley

Kings Island's Wooden Coasters:

The Beast was 48th

The Racer was 96th

Cedar Point's Wooden Coasters:

Blue Streak was 67th

Mean Streak was 151st

There were 581 total ballots cast this year. On a personal note, I have an unhealthy fascination/obsession with this poll so thank you to everyone who took the time to vote!

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4 years in a row for El Toro (first to ever do this- and it did it with a broken cable!), though it looks like Outlaw Run and RMC may one day have something to say about "The streak". And Voyage's slow-but-sure drop from that #1 overall spot continues as now it sits at #7...and RCCA coasters now sit at the bottom of the list with Coaster-Express and The Bandit. And Hades 360 stinks that much versus Original Hades!?!?

A very interesting poll, to say the least...and all 5 new-for-2013 wooden coasters did well. To which I say...VIVA LA WOOD!!! :P

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