3rd Annual Stagecoach BBQ Championship

This was the first sanctioned event of the 2009 season for The Smokepranos and it was a big one. The Stagecoach contest on April 25th and 26th in Indio, CA is one of the largest BBQ competitions on the west coast. There are three different competitions in one weekend. There was a KCBS sanctioned contest with 52 teams and one IBCA sanctioned contest with 59 teams on Saturday and one KCBS contest with 50 teams on Sunday, and we competed in all three. The Saturday KCBS comp was pretty standard we used some our recipes that we had used last year with a few little tweaks here and there. The results were not what we were hoping for but were not too bad, we finished 29th overall and our highest finish in a meat category was 17th in ribs. That was not bad for us because ribs are our weakest category. In the IBCA comp was the same type of outcome, not what we were expecting. Sundays KCBS comp we made some changes and with a little luck going our way the outcome was some what different, we ended up as the Reserve Grand Champion (2nd place). In the meat categories we finished 4th in ribs, 8th in pork and 4th in brisket. This was a huge surprise to us especially with what had happened in the other two comps. It was definitely our best finish by far and what made it even better was the guy who won was one of the top five BBQers in the nation. We learned a lot from the Sunday comp and we hope we can continue with the success.

1st 2009 Competition

Ric Gilbert's Backyard Warm Up 2009 was The Smokepranos first comp of 2009. Even though it was not a sanctioned event it felt good to get the competitive juices flowing again. Every year Ric graciously host a BBQ comp at his house to kick off the competition year for new teams and old. This was our first time at competing at Ric's Backyard Warm Up so I wasn't sure what to expect. In the past there have been real strong competitors but we were up for the challenge. There were four different categories to cook (chicken, tri-tip, ribs, and "Mystery" meat - Beef Short Ribs). Since this isn't a CBBQA Toy event it is a good one to try new things, which we did with mixed results. After all the judging was complete we had scored 3rd in chicken, 1st in pork ribs, 1st in tri-tip, and 3rd in mystery meat giving us a 1st place over all. Needless to say we were very happy, not only because of the the great results, but we won the most prized trophy of the year - Ric's Recycled Backyard Bowling Trophy.

The First Time !

This is the start of the new Blog of The Smokepranos BBQ Team. The team is made up of "The Pit Boss", Jason, and his three "Accomplices", Lacey, Derrick, & Zach. Our first competition was in our hometown of Modesto, CA in 2007. After placing 5th in Brisket and 17th out of 39 teams over all we were hooked. We did a total of 5 sanctioned competitions and 2 unsanctioned competitions in 2007 with pretty good results. We finished 15th overall in the CBBQA Team of the Year standings and were named the 2007 CBBQA Rookie Team of the Year. Needless to say we were very happy.

In 2008 we only competed in 3 sanctioned and 2 unsanctioned events and finished 20th in the CBBQA Team of the Year standings. We kind of ran into the sophomore jinx in 2008. I feel we tried to change too much and got lost. We haven't yet competed in 2009 but we have been practicing and trying to come up with a better game plan. I'm looking froward to 2009 and can't wait for the first competition. More to come!!