# Wok racing

Wok racing is a sport developed by the German TV host and entertainer Stefan Raab in which 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.

## 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.
To improve performance, the undersides of the woks are often heated with a blowlamp before the race.

## Advertising controversy

Public wok racing is only practiced once a year at The "World Wok Racing Championships" (German: Wok-WM, German pronunciation:, lit. Wok Worldcup) which is 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.

## World Wok Racing Championships
### Venues

* November 6, 2003: Winterberg
* March 4, 2004: Innsbruck
* March 5, 2005: Winterberg
* March 11, 2006: Innsbruck
* March 9, 2007: Innsbruck
* March 8, 2008: Altenberg
* March 7, 2009: Winterberg
* March 19, 2010: Oberhof
* March 12, 2011: Innsbruck
* March 10, 2012: Königssee
* March 2, 2013: Oberhof
* March 8, 2014: Königssee
* March 14, 2015: Innsbruck
* November 12, 2022: Winterberg
* November 11, 2023: Winterberg

### Ranking
#### One-person Wok

| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 2003 | Stefan Raab | Joey Kelly | Detlef Soost |
| 2004 | Georg Hackl | Joey Kelly | Stefan Raab |
| 2005 | Georg Hackl | Stefan Raab | Joey Kelly |
| 2006 | Joey Kelly | Georg Hackl | Stefan Raab |
| 2007 | Georg Hackl | Joey Kelly | Stefan Raab |
| 2008 | Georg Hackl | Christian Clerici | Joey Kelly |
| 2009 | Georg Hackl | Felix Loch | Joey Kelly |
| 2010 | Georg Hackl | Joey Kelly | Christian Clerici |
| 2011 | Georg Hackl | Felix Loch | Lucy Diakovska |
| 2012 | Georg Hackl | Lucy Diakovska | Joey Kelly |
| 2013 | Georg Hackl | Lucy Diakovska | Armin Zöggeler |
| 2014 | Joey Kelly | Georg Hackl | Armin Zöggeler |
| 2015 | Armin Zöggeler | Georg Hackl | Joey Kelly |
| 2022 | Joey Kelly | Lucas Cordalis | Jolina Mennen |
| 2023 | Joey Kelly | Armin Zöggeler | Sophia Thiel |

#### Four-person Wok

| Year | Team | Drivers |
| 2003 | Dick Brave and the Backbeats | 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/Austria team | Markus Prock, Ulrike Kriegler, Marc Pircher, Janine Flock |
| 2022 | Chocomel/Germany team 3 | Johannes Ludwig, Felix von Jascheroff, Francesco Friedrich, Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle |
| 2023 | Zoll-Karriere/Germany team 2 | Sven Hannawald, Thore Schölermann, Pascal Hens, Thorsten Legat |

### Records
#### Speed records

One-Person-Wok :
| Place | Speed in km/h | Holder | Year |
| Innsbruck | 91.70 | Georg Hackl | 2007 |
| Altenberg | 81.80 | Georg Hackl | 2008 |
| Winterberg | 105.40 | Georg Hackl | 2009 |
| Oberhof | 69.40 | Georg Hackl | 2010 |
| Königsee | 88.20 | Georg Hackl | 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 | Georg Hackl | 2007 |
Four-Person-Wok :
| Place | Time in seconds | Holder | Year |
| Winterberg | 57.117 | TV total | 2005 |
| Innsbruck | 52.527 | Fisherman's Friend | 2006 |