BBQ Events: Jack Daniel's Invitational World Championship BBQ

Ladies and Gentlemen, on October 28, 2006 the Kansas City Barbeque Society held it's premier event, the Jack Daniel's Invitational World Championship BBQ Contest. The Jack, as it's known is the ultimate event in the world of competitive barbequer.

To qualify for "The Jack," U.S. teams must have already won a competition in which 50 or more teams participated, or they must have won a competition of at least 25 teams that has been designated a "state championship". However, not only must these teams be culinary experts, they must also be lucky. With more than 100 teams qualifying each year ... and because of the limited space in Lynchburg ... they also limit the number of the teams. So, in early September the names of the qualifying teams go into state lotteries to select the final competitors.

It's a complicated procedure to qualify for The Jack and I'm still not sure of how it's done. It's not as simple as a lottery to pick out the true state champion. There are residency rules and all sorts of super secret rules and regulations that seem to change depending on who's telling you the story. If any of you folks reading this know the real story, please let me know.

This year's Grand Champion is Scottie and his team over at CancerSucksChicago.com. Scottie and his team are "devoted to raising money for cancer research." If you share his passion to wipe out cancer, you can make a donation to the Corliss Johnson Memorial Foundation here.

Runners up this year, or Reserve Champion as it's known goes to the boys at Oink County Cookers. For the rest of the top results, take a look here. I want to say a special congratulations to our friend Dick from Dirty Dick and the Legless Wonders for taking first place in the chicken category and to Adam from Daisy May's BBQ for taking 8th place overall.

I'm a bit bummed out that I wasn't at the contest this year. I've made myself a promise that I'm not going to Lynchburg until I'm invited as one of the participants and unfortunately we didn't qualify this year. Oh well, on to 2007!

Team photographs in this post are courtesy of the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Other photographs courtesy of Jack Daniel's Bar-B-Q.