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Highlands Today

Georgia Man Is Pig Fest Grand Champion

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: January 14, 2008

2007 Central Florida Barbecue Festival Photo Gallery

SEBRING — Bubba Latimer and the Bub-ba-Q team from Jasper, Ga. is the Grand Champion at the 12th Central Florida BBQ Festival.

Latimer was ecstatic after his team beat competitors from all over the Southeast in the weekend-long barbecue festival, also called the "Pig Fest." He has been competitively barbecuing for only the past year and a half.

He already knew where his prize was going when another competitor suggested mounting his trophy wooden pig statue.

"No ... that's going on my front counter!"
First, though, Latimer had a few more stops to go before he could take his prize, a large wooden statue of a pig, back to his restaurant. He said he was moving on to competitions in Okeechobee and then Wauchula.

The Oviedo, Fla.-based Homebbq.com team, last year's Grand Champions, took Reserve Champion honors this time around.

The "12 Hours of BBQ" featured 41 competitors, according to the Florida BBQ Association's official Web site, more than the 28 that competed last year, according to Pig Fest organizer Skip Adams. Many of those competitors just finished their first cook-off of a circuit and are now heading down to Okeechobee for the Top Of The Lake BBQ Affair coming Jan. 18.

"This is the biggest contest as far as patrons are concerned," said James Cowart of Huff-n-Puff BBQ out of Crawfordville, Fla.

John Loyd and Squeals-on-Wheels, this year's first-place finisher in the sauce category, wasn't following the rest of them down to the lake.

"I got a big party next week," Loyd said. "Instead of coming and gambling, I'll go for the guaranteed money." His sauce prize netted him $100, not counting the sales he made.

The total revenue made by the Pig Fest would not be available until next week, but Adams said most of the vendors sold out of their meats while he estimated the two-day crowd to be between 4,000 and 5,000. That would make it about level with last year's attendance.

"The (Sebring) Firemen served 400 dinners alone on Friday," he said. "We had enough people that bought up everything we had... everyone was happy."

The money raised by the Sebring Firemen during the 12th Central Florida BBQ Festival goes to support Sebring High School's band, athletic department and Sebring Middle School's football program. Adams expected this Pig Fest raised slightly more than last year's.

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