<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rick Kramer:
One of our very own members here at TVWB would tell Mr Ferrari that he'd be happy to put his Volkswagons up against anything they had to offer ... and most likely beat their butt! Check out Vincent's website. When it comes to WSMs in competition, he is the Master!
Rhythm n Que </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thank you, Rick, for your kind words about our team. Alexa and I have been very fortunate to have enjoyed so much success and it is an honor to be respected and recognized by people like you.
As for whether WSMs are serious competition cookers, we obviously think they are and so do a lot of other people. Here's an interesting story to tell anyone who wants to criticize the quality of these little cookers...
A very good friend of ours here in Arizona is Jay Benedict. His very successful cooking team is "Otis and The Bird". Jay has cooked on just about every kind of cooker out there and has had success throughout all the different cooker combinations he has used. When we first met Jay & his wife Monica, (sadly, Monica passed due to cancer a couple years ago), they were cooking with 2 original Big Drum Smokers and two 18" WSMs. I can tell you from first hand experience that Jay and Mon were always one of the best teams in any contest they entered and it was our pleasure to compete against them.
Anyway, after Monica passed, Jay decided that he was going to get a Jambo, about the only cooker he hadn't used before. We all know how good Jambos are and that some of the most recognized teams in competition barbeque use them including Cool Smoke, Pellet Envy and Smokin' Triggers. Well, after a year of cooking on his Jambo and even winning a GC along the way, Jay decided that he was going to go back to cooking his briskets on a WSM because he just liked the end product that the WSM produced over the one that came off the Jambo.
I've heard people say that "it's all about the roll up", meaning the impression you make with your rig when you arrive. We used to "roll up" in a Lincoln Town Car with a 5 x 8 U-Haul trailer and folks would laugh. Then we started to win a few contests and, well, folks didn't laugh so much anymore, not that it ever mattered to us.
Now we've moved to a minivan and we can fit our entire set up inside the vehicle which saves us a huge amount of money on fuel costs since we don't have to pull a trailer anymore. And moving from a 13 mpg vehicle to a 24 mpg vehicle doesn't hurt either. Tell those critics to try getting that kind of mileage with their Ferraris!