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COWBOY UP AT THE PRCA RODEO & BBQ CONTEST
CALIFORNIA HERITAGE DAYS
ANTELOPE VALLEY FAIRGROUNDS
LANCASTER CALIFORNIA
OCTOBER 18-20-2013
 

Overall
      


 

Chicken
 

Dessert
 

    

2010 - Lancaster Dueling BBQ, 2010 - full KCBS results
2012 - Lancaster, COWBOY UP AT THE PRCA RODEO & BBQ CONTEST - full KCBS results
2013 - Lancaster, COWBOY UP AT THE PRCA RODEO & BBQ CONTEST - full KCBS results
     

2nd Annual Cowboy Up Rodeo and BBQ

October 19, 2013

Lancaster, CA

By Donna Fong

The city of Lancaster has a rich history in the books about California.
The town got its start when the Southern Pacific Railroad made water
stops in Lancaster between trips from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
This town which lies 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, then became
a farming town for wheat and barley and then a mining town for gold and
borax. Nowadays, most know Lancaster for its proximity to Edwards
Airforce base, as the place where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier
and where a number of Space Shuttle landings have occurred. There’s
also a bone yard in neighboring Mojave for retired airplanes.

The Antelope Valley Fair Association hosted its annual California State
Finals of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) at the
fairgrounds in Lancaster. The 134 acres fairground houses spacious
pavilions and uniquely designed halls throughout the grounds. If you
didn’t know any better, you’d swear you were nowhere near L.A. There
was so much space. Concurrent with the PRCA is the Cowboy Up at the
PRCA Rodeo & BBQ.

2nd year contest promoter, Becky McRoberts, gave a warm country welcome
to teams on Friday night. Thanks to a well run contest last year, Becky
was able to more than double the teams for this year’s contest. They
all came for good reasons. Teams received custom embroidered aprons in
their welcome packet, plenty of space for their vehicles and rigs, crisp
fall weather, and well maintained restrooms. To our relief, there
wasn’t a porta potty to be seen. Power, water and ice were readily
available. Grease, ash and grey water were easy to dispose. And to top
it off, there were sinks for dishwashing throughout the contest site.
Becky made it easy to focus on cooking and good times. On Saturday
morning, a free breakfast was served.

As the smoke quietly rose from our contest site, the cheers for bull
riders could be heard in the distance. One by one, more and more
pitmasters started their smokers until the cheers all went home to rest
while we minded the pits. Tomorrow’s judges slept while cooks talked
about championship briskets of the past and anticipated the rewards of
the next day.

Teams in October are well oiled. There are rarely any surprises this
late in the season. The circuit pace slows to a crawl and teams relish
the last moments of the season.

The night temperature in Lancaster continues to drop until its lowest
level at about 7am. Then the rise throughout the day can be quite
dramatic. For this day, it went from 36°F to 84°F in 9 hours. But the
teams didn’t mind. There was no wind and that made for easy cooking.
Gary Seely from Papa Roy’s was here again after his first year of
competing. Across from his was Mike Swan from El Cowboy & the Cajun BBQ
in the corner spot. Those teams in the middle served PC to visitors
when the gates opened up Saturday afternoon. Teams welcomed back our
guys from the American Royal and we heard their grand stories. Others
watched their smart phones for results from the contest in Prescott, AZ.
Five teams came down from the north, Royal Smokin’ Hot, Too Ashamed to
Name, Big B’s Down-N-Dirty, Son of Smoke and Smokey Luv. A few others
saved their money for the longer Nevada trips in the coming months.
Still, the top California teams were there and giving everyone a run for
their money.

Steve Wilson’s teammate, Josh Weiss, mentioned that Steve had won 5th in
Grand Junction, 4th in Telluride, 3rd in Dana Point, and 2nd in
Cottonwood, AZ. And he has done this all in a row. He was hoping for
the trend to continue with a 1st at Lancaster. Of course he would have
to contend with Lancaster’s most colorful pitmaster, Steve Madule and
his team, All Hogs Go To Heaven. This 9th year veteran pitmaster teamed
up with last year’s winner, Dave Malone and made a formidable opponent.

Harry Soo, a six year veteran cook, brought a 12 inch mini WSM. And
that’s all the smoker he brought. He cooked all four KCBS meats on the
tiny smoker and many came by to admire the feat. It was hard to imagine
how he could cook on something smaller than a bag of charcoal, but he
did. Whether any of it was good was to be proven later.

When the awards ceremony approached at 6:30 PM, darkness fell quickly.
An instructor up front was finishing her line dancing class for mostly
ladies. Becky walked up and welcomed us again on a microphone, wearing
one of Tropical Heat’s brightly colored shirts. Becky is down to earth
and has a dry sense of humor. She knows the teams well and jokes with
them as they walk up to the stage for their awards. Kelly stands in the
background making sure all things are in order. Kathleen sits, watches
and makes sure that Kelly does it right. And as usually the case,
everything goes on perfectly.

5th in chicken went to Sterling Ball of Big Poppa Smokers. 4th went to
Curtis Trigueiro of Ridge Route Boys. 3rd went to Kevin Barteaux of
Smokey Luv. 2nd went to Steve Wilson of the Pit Crew of SoCal. And 1st
place went to Bill Souza of Big B’s Down-N-Dirty BBQ.

5th in ribs went to Stephan Franklin of Simply Marvelous BBQ. 4th went
to Sylvie Curry of Lady of Q. 3rd went to Steve Aguilar of Vicious
Smoke. 2nd went to Harry Soo of Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ. 1st in ribs went
to Sterling Ball of Big Poppa Smokers.

5th in pork shoulder went to Sterling Ball of Big Poppa Smokers. 4th
went to Sylvie Curry of Lady of Q. 3rd went to Steve Madule and Dave
Malone of All Hogs Go To Heaven. 2nd went to Andy Allen of Rooftop BBQ
and for the second contest in a row, 1st place in pork shoulder went to
Kim and Ryan Moore of Knock UR Sox Off BBQ.

5th in beef brisket went to Kim and Ryan Moore of Knock UR Sox Off BBQ.
4th went to Dan Daniels and Bill Keyes of Tropical Heat BBQ. 3rd went
to Sylvie Curry of Lady of Q. 2nd went to Jason Miranda of ZZYZX
BAR.B.Q. And 1st place in brisket went to The Pit Crew of SoCal with a
perfect 180 score. This was the first 180 score in meat by Steve
Wilson. His wife, Pam Wilson, earned a 180 pin earlier in another
contest with a winning dessert entry. Imagine matching 180 pins all in
one family!

For the dessert category, Becky made sure to try every entry. The top
five winners were Zak Galiste of Son of Smoke in 5th, Patrick Sawyer of
Daddy O’s Smokin’ BBQ in 4th, Ardith Richardson of All Hogs Go To Heaven
in 3rd, Michael Gayler of OLE Blue BBQ in 2nd and Harry Soo of Slap Yo’
Daddy BBQ with a 1st in dessert.

Overall, 5th went to Kevin Barteaux of Smokey Luv. 4th went to Sylvie
Curry of Lady of Q. 3rd went to Jason Miranda of ZZYZX BAR.B.Q.
Reserve Grand Champion was Steve Madule and Dave Malone of All Hogs Go
To Heaven. The Grand Champion was Steve Wilson and Josh Weiss of The
Pit Crew of SoCal with his 3rd GC of this year.

Congratulations to Steve Wilson, Steve Madule and Dave Malone for taking
top honors this year at Lancaster’s Cowboy Up Rodeo and BBQ. Many
thanks go to Becky McRoberts for a fun time and a well organized
contest. And of course, a debt of gratitude goes out to Kelly and
Kathleen McIntosh for a fair BBQ competition.
 

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