--- title: "Racing Across an Entire Country in a Tuk Tuk" description: "A two-part, Top Gear style tuk tuk race across Sri Lanka on TheBurntChip, with a paper map and a compass. Tom created the format through New Waves, Who Dis?" canonical: https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/theburntchip-sri-lanka/ updated: 2026-10-25 --- # Racing Across an Entire Country in a Tuk Tuk > A two-part, Top Gear style tuk tuk race across Sri Lanka on TheBurntChip, with a paper map and a compass. Tom created the format through New Waves, Who Dis? ## At a glance - Client: TheBurntChip (Joshua Larkin) - Tom's role: Format creator. Filed as Produced, Format and strategy, and Talent supplied. Co-Founder and Head of Talent Management, New Waves, Who Dis? (Jun 2021 to Nov 2023). - Years: 2023 to 2024 - Platforms: YouTube - A two-part, Top Gear style tuk tuk race across Sri Lanka on TheBurntChip, released 24 October 2023 and 1 February 2024. - Four YouTubers in two tuk tuks, with phones taken away and only a paper map and a compass. - The video puts the race at seven days and over 1,500 km. - Tom created the Tuk Tuk format for the channel. - 3,550,114 views across both parts on YouTube on 25 October 2026. - Part 1 ran 10% above the channel's 2023 to 2024 median. Part 2 ran 30% below it. ## The starting point New Waves, Who Dis? was the UK YouTube production company Tom co-founded with Sam Hilton. TheBurntChip is Joshua Larkin, a Manchester YouTuber known for football challenges, vlogs and Fortnite. Tom made 27 long form videos made for the channel through New Waves, Who Dis? By 2023 the channel's long form ran on repeatable formats: Come Dine With Me, the 24 Hour YouTuber Race, Pub Golf and travel challenges. ## What Tom did Tom created the Tuk Tuk format for the channel. Both parts are filed under Produced, Format and strategy, and Talent supplied. Part 2 credits a crew of Harry Frampton, Kian Gravelis, Benjamin Maslin and Sam Hilton. Tom is not listed. ## How it was made **The cast.** TheBurntChip, ArthurTV, George Clarkey and Arthur Hill, all linked in the Part 1 description. Chip drives with ArthurTV. George Clarkey and Arthur Hill are the other team. **The vehicle.** A tuk tuk of about 600 kg with a top speed of about 50 km/h, by the narrator's count. **The rules.** Each sunrise brings a new challenge. Winners eat and sleep well. Losers face a forfeit. The first challenge is a scavenger hunt called The Great Escape, ending 200 km inland at a golden temple. On day four the losing team works with $10 against the winners' 500. **The structure.** Part 1 runs 48:00 and covers days one to three. It ends with the leaderboard tied, one day each. Part 2 runs 1:00:37. Its chapters run through a driving test, a slalom, a drag race, a waterfall hunt, a safari, a bingo challenge, a rabies scare and the finish line. Chip and ArthurTV win. ArthurTV takes the prize, a weekend away in any European city, and the losers go to the party dressed as babies. **The sponsor.** Part 1 carries a BetterHelp read and is marked as a paid promotion. Part 2 is not marked as a paid promotion and carries no sponsor link. Part 1's description also links The Adventurists' Rickshaw Run, inviting viewers to make the same trip. **What viewers replay.** On Part 1, YouTube's most replayed marker sits from 8:38 to 9:36. On Part 2 there are two: 16:58 to 18:11, around the final drag race, and 44:15 to 46:04, around the rabies scare. ## The results - Part 1: 2,166,135 views and 82,684 likes on YouTube on 25 October 2026. - Part 2: 1,383,979 views and 50,445 likes on YouTube on 25 October 2026. - 3,550,114 views across both parts on YouTube: 2,166,135 and 1,383,979, read 25 October 2026. - The channel posted 18 long form videos in 2023 and 2024. Their median is 1,973,248 views. - Part 1 ranks 7th of those 18, at 1.10 times the median. Part 2 ranks 15th, at 0.70 times. - On the whole channel, Part 1 is the 13th most watched video and Part 2 the 38th. - For scale, I Survived a 24 Hour YouTuber Race, Part 2, from the same period, has 4,510,979, 2.29 times the median. - Among Tom's 27 TheBurntChip videos, Part 1 is 8th and Part 2 is 19th. ## What it proves A one-off video gives you one hit. A format keeps producing them. The Tuk Tuk race is a format with fixed rules, two teams, a daily challenge and a forfeit, so it can be run again in any country. See [Formats over ideas](/playbooks/content/formats-over-ideas/) and [Pitching a show format](/playbooks/how-i-work/pitching-a-show-format/). ## Coverage and links - The two videos and the channel are the public record. - No press coverage of the series was found. ## The numbers - 3,550,114: views across both parts on YouTube (Verified) - 2,166,135: views on Part 1, 7th of the channel's 18 long form uploads in 2023 and 2024 (Verified) - 1,973,248: the channel's median long form views for 2023 and 2024. Part 1 ran 1.10 times it (Verified) - 1,500 km: across Sri Lanka in seven days, by the video's own count (Verified) - 1:48:37: of long form across the two parts, 48:00 and 1:00:37 (Verified) ## Key videos - [Racing Across an Entire Country in a Tuk Tuk - Part. 1](https://tomsharman.com/videos/66HxzpVGI_s/index.md): 2,142,689 views, 24 October 2023. Days one to three. Above the channel's median for the period. - [Racing Across an Entire Country in a Tuk Tuk - Part. 2](https://tomsharman.com/videos/zx8BOsvA3oA/index.md): 1,273,529 views, 1 February 2024. Days three to the finish line, an hour long, 100 days after Part 1. - [I Survived a 24 Hour YouTuber Race - Part 2](https://tomsharman.com/videos/zay35BwTU84/index.md): 4,481,218 views, 1 June 2023. The channel's most watched video, for comparison. ## Links ### Videos - [YouTube: Racing Across an Entire Country in a Tuk Tuk - Part. 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66HxzpVGI_s) - [YouTube: Racing Across an Entire Country in a Tuk Tuk - Part. 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8BOsvA3oA) ### Channels - [TheBurntChip on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSCvnsxOcoknftrqdXQzyg) ### More - [The Adventurists: Rickshaw Run, linked from Part 1](https://www.theadventurists.com/rickshaw-run/) ## Read next - https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/theburntchip/ - https://tomsharman.com/videos/66HxzpVGI_s/ - https://tomsharman.com/videos/zx8BOsvA3oA/ - https://tomsharman.com/videos/?creator=TheBurntChip - https://tomsharman.com/playbooks/content/formats-over-ideas/ - https://tomsharman.com/playbooks/how-i-work/pitching-a-show-format/