The weather was fantastic all three days and even managed to hold out past tear-down.

The first round of pictures will be up this evening and the remainder of pictures will trickle in over the next couple of weeks. If you have any pictures or if you want to publish an article, feel free to submit either.

Many thanks to our fantastic sponsors and we all look forward to next year in Houston!

Please come back often to see new articles and pictures.

...and remember: It's All Good!

As the pictures get uploaded, they can be found in the gallery See all the pictures here: 2008 HLS&R World Championship Bar-B-Que Cookoff

You're in store for a treat. The pit was blasted down to the metal and repainted with six coats of high-temp paint. The entire trailer had the metal repainted. The floor was painted with non-stick oil based paint. A new cedar fence was installed around the prep area of the pit, the wood counters were routed round and polyurethaned. A handle was put on the back gate, new downspout pipes were cut to size and installed under the grease drain ball valves. The barrel doors had bigger bars installed and custom oak handles - new oak handles and brass bolts were installed on the tower doors. The tail lights had some new wiring done to give a solid ground (and they were tested). The hole in the front barrel was welded closed (this is no excuse Reggie!). And last but not least, the inside of the pit was completely cleaned (some ten or twenty gallons of grease, carbon, sand and part of Reggie's brickset {spelling intentional} from last year was removed)...I am sure that there were other items that were done but not noted, but that is the major stuff.

A big thanks to Mel who stuck it out with me for most of the job...honorable mentions to Mike and Princess for putting up with me and the mess I made...and to Mitch, Jim, Dava and Marty who came out and helped when they could. Also thanks to Rueben (aka Piss Ant) for doing a super pro welding job on the hole and welding a roof support for us. For some reason, we also had this jackass hanging around every time I was out in Bellville working on the pit.

You can see all the pictures in the phone gallery. Click here: 2008 A Pit Raising - Again!

I hope everyone enjoys the "new" look as a great deal of time and effort went into making this happen.

If anyone sees it and thinks something should have been done a different way or if they don't like the way part of it came out, please feel free to...

See all the pictures here: 2008 A Pit Raising - Again!