Racing 739 — The Ski Wax That Was Too Fast for the Olympics
🏆 Racing 739™ — Banned from Olympic and World Cup competition for being too fast. Made in USA since 1963. Now available for recreational use.
In the history of ski racing, no wax has a story like Racing 739.
Developed by Terry Hertel in 1963, Racing 739 was a professional race wax built around one goal: maximum glide performance on competitive race courses. It was used at the Olympic and World Cup level, where it delivered results that the ski racing establishment found difficult to explain — and ultimately impossible to allow.
Racing 739 was banned from Olympic competition, World Cup racing, and other sanctioned events. The reason: skiers using it were winning by margins of up to 4 full seconds in a sport where races are decided by thousandths of a second.
That ban is the most remarkable endorsement a wax company has ever received.
The Story Behind the Ban
Race wax technology is one of the most closely guarded competitive advantages in ski racing. National teams employ full-time wax technicians. Manufacturers invest millions in formula development. The difference between winning and losing at the World Cup level is often measured in hundredths of a second.
When Racing 739 began appearing in race results — not by hundredths, but by full seconds — it created a problem for the governing bodies of ski racing.
The solution was a ban.
According to Terry Hertel, many race technicians at the Olympic and World Cup level quietly continued combining Hertel products with their official wax systems because of the measurable difference in how skis performed on snow. The ban applied to official use. What happened in the wax room was another matter.
WhiteGold™ and the Industry Pushback
Racing 739 was not the only Hertel product that rattled the ski establishment. WhiteGold™ — Hertel's all-temperature snowboard and ski wax — was used at the Olympic and World Cup level with similarly dominant results. According to Terry Hertel, shortly after major racing successes connected to WhiteGold™ technology, he was bluntly told by leadership tied to the ski establishment to "get the fuck out of the industry."
That is what happens when an independent American company outperforms the establishment on its own turf.
What Racing 739 Actually Does
Racing 739 is an all-temperature race wax — a formula that performs across a broad range of snow conditions without requiring precise temperature matching.
Most professional race waxes require technicians to select the exact right formula for a narrow temperature window. Get it wrong by a few degrees and performance suffers. Racing 739 was engineered to deliver consistent, dominant performance across a wider range — which is part of what made it so effective and so difficult for competitors to counter.
It is also a non-fluoro formula, meeting current environmental regulations and FIS non-fluoro requirements.
Now Available for Recreational Use
Racing 739 is banned from sanctioned Olympic, World Cup, and professional racing events. It is 100% legal for recreational skiing, snowboarding, club racing, and any non-sanctioned competition.
You can use the same wax that was too fast for the Olympics on your own skis today.
Made in USA since 1963. Over 60 years of continuous production.
A Note From Terry Hertel
Racing 739 is the product I am most proud of — not because it made skiers faster, but because it made the establishment uncomfortable enough to ban it.
In any industry, the products that get banned are the ones that actually work.
— Terry Hertel, Founder, Hertel Ski Wax
Experience the banned wax yourself. Shop Racing 739™ — The Wax Too Fast for the Olympics →