Here’s the top ten wooden roller coasters in Mitch Hawker’s annual Internet Coaster Poll along with their places in last year’s poll:
2010 Top Ten Best Wooden Roller Coasters
1 El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey) Intamin (2nd)
2 T Express at Everland(Korea) Intamin (3rd)
3 Boulder Dash at Lake Compounce (Connecticut) CCI (4th)
4 Phoenix at Knoebels (Pennsylvania) Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (8th)
5 Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer (Pennsylvania) Gravity Group (5th)
6 The Voyage at Holiday World (Indiana) Gravity Group (1st)
7 Balder at Liseberg (Sweden) Intamin (7th)
8 Colossos at Heide Park (Germany) Intamin
9 Aska at Nara Dreamland(Japan) Intamin (10th)
10 Fireball at Happy Valley (China) Gravity Group (9th)
See the complete 2010 wooden roller coaster poll results with all 180 coasters.
Intamin Pre-fabs Continue to Dominate
As was the case in previous polls, Intamin pre-fabricated woodies continue to rank atop the worldly Internet Coaster Poll. While they barely make an appearance in the Golden Ticket Awards. I have no complaints with El Toro’s first place ranking as it sits at the top of my top ten wooden coasters list and at number 2 in my overall Top Ten Coasters.
Other American Woodies
Worlds of Fun’s Prowler debuted at 6th last year, but fell to 12th this year. Other U.S. woodies in the top 25 were: Thunderhead at Dollywood (14th), Rampage at Alabama Adventures (15th), Tremors at Silverwood (17th), Renegade at Valleyfair! (18th), Hades at Mt. Olympus (19th) and the standing but not operating Ozark Wildcat at Celebration City (20th).
There’s nothing too shocking or interesting in this year’s results. Mostly the top ten shuffled around a bit from last year. The Voyage’s fall to 6th could easily be reversed next year. Especially if those Gravity Group Timberliner trains perform half as good as advertised.
I will say that I slept on Aska at the defunct Disneyland rip off Nara Dreamland when I wrote: The Best Defunct Roller Coaster on the Planet. Also, maybe TwoFifteen’s comment on that post about Ozark Wildcat being a great defunct coaster has some merit as it ranked pretty well.
What’s Your Take?
What do you think of Mitch Hawker’s Wooden Coaster Poll results for this year? Where did your favorite wooden roller coaster finish? Leave a comment below.