50 2014 Art & Balloon Festival Lincoln Daily News.com August 25, 2014
Wayne and Lynne Reeder
Wayne and Lynne Reeder, along with their children
have been involved in these competitions for the
past four years and won grand champion at events
in Columbia, Missouri and Davenport, Iowa. Head
cook Wayne and his assistant cook Lynne participate
in ten to twelve competitions a year and love going
to the World Series of BBQ in Kansas City. Wayne
has taken barbequing classes and says he uses special
sauces, but often likes to tweak his recipe. He says it
is in his blood and he is passionate about it. In order
to win, they say you have to “wow” the judges. Even
though they compete against one another, Wayne says
he “picks up tidbits from others” and there is “good
camaraderie” between teams.
PitmasterIQ BBQ
Another team that has been competing for the past
four years is ‘PitmasterIQ BBQ’ from O’Fallon,
Missouri. As with the Reeder’s team, PitmasterIQ
BBQ is also a family affair with members John
and Barb Kennington, son Matt and daughter-in-
law Kristen. The family has participated in twenty
competitions this year, hitting it hard in the spring
and early summer and travelling as far as Minnesota
to compete. They will have a busy fall as well as they
plan to participate in six weekends of events. Though
most of the competitions the PitmasterIQ have been in
are during the busy competition season between April
and October, John says that they have “participated in
a freeze BBQ in January” when there was “ten inches”
of snow on the ground. Member of both the KCBS
and the St. Louis BBQ Society, the Kenningtons have
won grand champion in North Kansas City. They say
they have gotten to know a lot of great people through
these competitions.
