Kansas City, MO
On the first week of October, the Dizzy Pig competition team began their 7th cross-country journey from Manassas, Virginia to the bbq mecca of Kansas City to compete in the ‘World Series of Barbecue’, the American Royal.
With the well-traveled competition trailer loaded up, the team landed in KC in record time, thanks to a massive driving performance from Chris Capell, who drove from Dizzy Pig headquarters to the outskirts of St. Louis on day 1 of the trip. That meant only a short jaunt into KC on the Wednesday morning of competition week.
The latter part of the drive, and the first days in KC were met with driving rain and dropping temperatures, but the team members made the best of things, and Chris and Brian Junkins were even able to squeeze in a round of disc golf at one of the top courses in the country, North KC’s Water Works Park, between storms on Wednesday afternoon.
By Thursday, everyone was in town for the event, and the Dizzy Pig American Royal team was complete: captain Chris Capell, Brian Junkins, Neil Fleitell, Mike Kerslake down from Canada and Mike (Nebraska Mike) Cooper, a guest teammate who had taken Chris’ competition class and eagerly accepted an invitation to join the team for the Royal.
Setting up at site 818, the team quickly got rolling once the bulk of the rain had passed, and had the Eggs humming along for round 1, the Invitational event, of the American Royal. With Chris and Brian leading the way, all 4 categories for the Invite turned out incredibly well, and hopes were high after each turn-in box made its long journey to the judging area.
At awards time, the optimism dimmed as the team failed to get a call, however when score sheets were received, the consistent quality of all 4 categories had earned the team a respectable 55th place result, landing Dizzy Pig in the top 30% of a field of all state championship winning teams.
overall
chicken
ribs
pork
brisket
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