Interview With The Champs

Earlier this month, Sauce This BBQ out of Easton, MD took home grand champion honors at the Beltway BBQ Showdown in Ft. Washington, MD.  Danny, Mark, Darryl, and Ryan are a bunch of great guys and were nice enough to answer a few questions for us…check ‘em out below:

Q: Congratulations on your recent win in Ft. Washington at the Beltway BBQ Showdown.  How did it feel to go home with the Grand Championship?

Sauce This BBQ: It really caught us by surprise and was frankly very overwhelming.

Q:How did your cook go…did you have a feeling this could be the day?

STBBQ: Our cook went fairly smooth other than it being confusing to cook without rain pouring down. We honestly didn’t feel like this could be the day we won the GC. To be honest, we took some extra comfy chairs to the awards and expected to stay in them the entire time.

Q: Tell us a little about your team and teammates.

STBBQ: All of us Danny Youngblood, Mark Kenney, Darryl Anderson and Ryan Davis have been friends for years. Danny and Mark were golf partners when Danny decided to form a Competition BBQ team and asked Mark and Darryl if they would like to partner up with him. We figured that there was no way he could be worse at BBQ than he is at golf so why not give it a go. Our fourth member, Ryan Davis joined us early in our second season and has a growing amount of responsibilities.

Q: How many GCs is this for your guys?

STBBQ: This is our 3^rd GC

Q: What makes Sauce This BBQ different or unique?

STBBQ: Not sure if we are unique really and it is probably fair to say all of us BBQ Competitors are a little ‘different’. A huge part of the pull of competitive BBQ is meeting and becoming friends with so many teams. We have been friends for a long time so very little is off limits any more. There are lots of shots fired at each other, but all in good fun.

Q: What kind of equipment and set up do you have?

STBBQ: We have a Lang 84 Deluxe for 3 meats and a G2 Chubby for chicken. We cook out of a trailer we found in someone’s backyard after our second contest. With the 4 of us not being the neatest people, we do virtually everything outside.

Q: Will you do the Royal this year since you’re now qualified for the invitational?  Any others on your radar now that you’ve got a GC under your belt for this year?

STBBQ: We doubt we can fit in the Royal this year but of course have our fingers crossed that we get a chance to go back to the Jack.

Q: I like to ask in this segment, what tip(s) do you have for competition teams to go from good to great and get that GC call?

STBBQ: Work hard to be as consistent as you can with your cooks and be hard on your own product.

Q: Any parting shots?
STBBQ: Shots? Shots sound good! 9:22am?

Q: I heard there was some kind of date Thursday night with one of your teammates in Ft. Washington…is this true and was it a factor in your big win?

STBBQ: What happened at the Beltway BBQ Showdown, stays at the Beltway BBQ Showdown…It was magical!