Forty-one professional BBQ teams, including teams from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina traveled to Ashburn, Georgia on March 23, 2019 for the 24th annual Fire Ant Festival.
Not only was $10,000 in prize money and trophies awarded to the winners in three different BBQ categories, but Team of the Year points were also doubled for this event. The high level of competition was evidenced by five different scores of 600 during the preliminary rounds. Many teams also participated in the SCA Steak Cook-off held on Friday night.
Hold Your Horses claimed their long sought first Grand Championship and $2,000 after several previous trips to the finals. The Pitt Crew GA also won $2,000 and Reserve Grand Champion in only their second GBA contest after finishing 4th in loin, 1st in pork, and 12th in ribs.
Holy Smokes won loin after scoring a 600 in the preliminary round. Weekend Warriors also scored a 600 in preliminaries and finished second in loin. Bubba Grills returned after a long absence from GBA with third place in loin.
The top two finishers in the pulled pork category each scored 600s for their preliminary entries. After finals, The Pit Crew GA came out on top in first place. Second and third places in pulled pork were a repeat from the last GBA contest with Pot’s BBQ again in second place and Jack Fallin with Captain Jack’s BBQ Crew taking third.
Hold Your Horses won the rib category on the way to their Grand Championship. Local Ashburn team Real-licious finished in second place after scoring a 600 in the preliminary round. Shark Bite BBQ came in third in their first GBA finals.
The final TOTY standings will be decided on April 6 in Donalsonville, GA at the last points contest of the GBA season. Acworth will host an event “In Association With” the GBA on May 11 that is open to any team with at least one current GBA member, but the results will not count towards the Team of the Year standing.
The full results for each category and Pro reserve scores can be found at the following links:
Loin, Pork, and Rib Results
https://gba.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Contest%20Results/Ashburn%202019%20categories.pdf
Reserve Scores
https://gba.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Contest%20Results/Ashburn%202019%20Reserve.pdf