CAPE GIRARDEAU PLAYS HOST TO 'GRILLING' EVENT

Joe Loyd's trailer doesn't haul race cars anymore. It transports barbecue grills.

With two double-shelved meat smokers almost six feet high welded down at both ends and a healthy-sized grill between them, Loyd's trailer couldn't handle a car anymore.

"I think I've put about as much money into barbecue as I did into racing," said Loyd, whose Rite Way Bar-B-Q was one of 27 teams at the seventh annual Cape Barbecue Fest.

More than 2,000 people came on Friday and Saturday to Arena Park for the event, sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, along with the SEMO Cattlemen and the Cape County Pork Producers.

"We've had some requests for chicken, but under the circumstances, we're only having beef and pork," said Fred Higdon, chairman of the event.

The festival is spread over two days, with Friday evening giving cooks a chance to practice before judging begins on Saturday.

"Having a day for a dry run is important," said Mike McKinnis, a member of the Kiwanis barbecue team. "It helps us get the bugs worked out."

The Kiwanis warmed up their grill and voices Friday, winning the showmanship prize for the second year in a row. With a guitar and a fire engine's lights and sirens as accompaniment, they performed "Rock Around the Clock" and "The Kiwanis Firemen Song."

Besides their music, McKinnis said their butts and ribs were good, too.

"We'll marinate them, then baste them until they're tender," he said. "After that we'll let them cool down before cooking them for a long time."

The teams from Southeast Missouri and Illinois competed by cooking six types of meats: pork steak, pork butt or shoulder, pork ribs, beef hamburgers, beef kabobs and strip steak.

Few requirements are made of the cooks, Higdon said, other than the meat must be pre-packaged, USDA-inspected products and it has to be cooked.

"We just tell them it has to be done," Higdon said. "But the length of time it's cooked is up to them."

Jim Ham's team had more trophies on display than barbecue on the grill Saturday. For the past eight years, he and neighbors Mike Klipfel and W.R. "Reeder" Withers have shuttled their Mercantile Bank team around the regional barbecue circuit.

This year's Mercantile team won the overall championship, making them the festival's only repeat grand champion.

In other categories, the first-place winners were: Bank of America for hamburgers; SEMO Cattlemen's Association for beef strip steak; Davis Farms of McClure, Ill., for beef kabob; Black Dog barbecue of Jackson for pork steak; Mercantile Bank for ribs; and Bluff City Beer Co. for pork butts.

Loyd, who last year won third place in a state-wide competition in Georgia, said he'd have to bring his "bone-sucking sauce" back again another year.

"I've always said I've learned more from my mistakes," he said.