Lenexa BBQ contest has become major competition — and a ‘fantastic time’

The smell of smoke, barbecue sauce and slow-cooked meat filled Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park this weekend when the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle returned.

What began in 1982 as a small competition with 12 teams and 12 judges has grown into one of Lenexa’s biggest annual traditions. This year, 161 teams competed for the grand champion title at the official Kansas State Championship, while about 172 judges were expected to help decide the winners.

Sara Hurst, Lenexa’s recreation superintendent, said the event has become much more than a barbecue competition.

“It is massive,” Hurst said. “We are in our 44th year of the Great Lenexa BBQ competition. We have live music, kids activities, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, which I love, NASCAR displays and, for the first time, five free sample stations spread throughout the park.”

Judging took place Saturday morning, when teams turned in entries every half hour. Most of the judges were Kansas City Barbecue Society-certified, and the competition used a blind judging process to determine the winners. But behind the trophies, judging tables and official turn-in times were teams with very different stories.

For Aporkcalypse, this year marked the team’s first time competing in Lenexa. The team had competed in other barbecue contests before, but husband and wife co-cooks Jared and Lauren Cox said the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle felt like a step up.

“This is almost the intermediate pinnacle of competitions other than the American Royal,” Jared said. “If we finish in the middle of the pack, we’re going to be happy.”

The team had brisket, pork shoulders and ribs cooking, with more food ready for friends and visitors. Even with the pressure of competing, the team said the weekend was mostly about enjoying the experience.

“I get to do this with friends, and we get to barbecue, so it’s an absolutely fantastic time,” said Jared.

A few tents away, The Pig Lebowski brought a different kind of energy. Head cook Ron Culbert said he has been coming to the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle since he was in high school. He grew up about a half-mile from the park and first attended the event in 1991. He has competed with The Pig Lebowski since 2007 making this his 19th year. For Culbert, the event has always felt personal. It is part-competition, part-reunion and part-neighborhood party.

“We have such a good time here,” Culbert said. “We’ve finished first in the miscellaneous category and an overall finish of 14th one year, but it’s really not about the contest at the end of the day because it’s always such a great time,” Culbert said.

But on Friday night, the team’s tent was not only focused on barbecue. It also became part of Kansas City’s World Cup atmosphere.

Friends Bart Tuitman, Gaime Vlaming, and Jacob Krijnen, from Texel, Netherlands, in town during the World Cup, found their way to The Pig Lebowski tent and joined the party. Culbert welcomed them in, played music and watched as the tent turned into an international celebration.

“We never expected anything to be this big,” Vlaming said. “They say Texas has the big meats and barbecue, but they have nothing on Kansas City. This is so much fun, and we are having such a great time.”

Tuitman added, “We were planning to spend an hour tops here, check it out, but that was almost four hours ago.”

At The Pig Lebowski a game of beer pong broke out and when the Dutch friends won, Culbert did the only thing he saw fit: played the famous “Links Rechts.”

“We played it really loud,” Culbert said. “The entire tent was doing the dance, even people from other tents joined in, and it was such a cool moment.”

The moment showed how the competition can bring together people who might never have crossed paths otherwise, longtime Lenexa residents, barbecue teams, visitors and soccer fans all sharing the same tent for a few minutes.

For Sean Moran, the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle is more than a fun weekend but a tradition he and his family have been part of for 41 years with their team, Oink Moo and Cock a Doodle Doo, Welcome to the BBQ.

“A college friend and I first entered the contest almost by accident after mailing in an entry fee before we were fully ready. It was a mistake,” Moran said.

That mistake turned into more than four decades of competing. Over the years, Moran said, “We have probably won almost every individual category at least once.”

Winning was not the only reason he kept coming back. This year, surrounded by family and friends, Moran said the day felt easy. After 41 years, some of the cooking duties have started to shift to the next generation. Moran’s son was expected to handle most of the overnight cooking this year.

“I’m going to go home and go to bed,” Moran said. “Passing of the torch I guess.”

That passing of responsibility is part of what makes the event last. Teams return year after year, and the competition becomes something that is shared among parents, children, friends and neighbors.

Some teams are still learning what it takes to compete in Lenexa. Others have spent nearly two decades perfecting their setup, their timing and their recipes. A few have been around long enough to watch the contest grow from a small local event into a major barbecue competition.

But no matter how long they have been competing, many of them say the same thing: The Great Lenexa BBQ Battle is about more than awards.

It is about spending time with family and friends. It is about cooking outside, sharing food, meeting strangers and returning to the same park each year for another weekend of smoke, music and barbecue.

On Saturday night, Gettin’ Basted out of Nixa, Missouri, was named the overall winner of this year’s Great Lenexa BBQ Battle.