The current GBA season came to an end when twenty-nine professional teams traveled to Donalsonville, Georgia on April 6, 2019 for the first ever Firehouse BBQ Festival. Four teams used the opportunity to make their debut in competitive cooking. $10,000 in prize money and unique trophies were awarded, in addition to deciding the final Team of the Year standings.
Off the Chain took home $2,000 and a unique fire axe trophy for winning the Grand Championship. Budmeister BBQ also claimed $2,000 and the Reserve Grand Champion trophy by finishing 11th in loin, and 1st place in both pork and ribs.
Off the Chain finished first in loin, with Rescue Smokers coming in second. Hot Ash Q was third after scoring their first 600 in the preliminary round.
Budmeister BBQ won the pulled pork category. The Pit Crew GA finished second after scoring the only other 600 of the day in preliminaries. Kelvin’s BBQ claimed third place.
Budmeister BBQ also finished first in the rib category. Hold Your Horses continued their rib run with second place, and Pirates of Porkscents walked in third place.
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. Team and judge registration are both available online at https://www.bbqga.org/waevents/
The full results for each category and reserve scores can be found at the following links:
Loin, Pork, and Rib Results
https://gba.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Contest%20Results/Firehouse%20Category%20Results.pdf
Reserve Scores
https://gba.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Contest%20Results/Firehouse%20Reserve%20Scores.pdf