High-water mark
677.0288
career-best overall
94.0% of a perfect 720
Their best day on record: 677.0288 at Sonny's Smokin Showdown (INVITATIONAL ONLY) — 94.0% of a perfect 720.
- Master
- Mar 2, 2018
Smokestack Lightning
Smokestack Lightning is a competition barbecue team with 5 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2016 and 2024. Their best overall finish is 25th of 72 at the Poosa Q (2022). They finished #373 in the 2024 Backyard Series Team of the Year standings.
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1485
Unranked — needs 5 rated contests, has 41 invitational or side-series contest not counted
Contests
5
in the data
First seen
Jul 22, 2016
latest Oct 4, 2024 · 8.2 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
0
1 podium
Overall top-10s
0
0% of 5 contests
Avg finish
top 73%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
20%
contests with a top-10 call
Consistency
±10.52
spread of their Backyard overall scores (lower = steadier)
Strongest meat
Pork
avg 163.96 · weakest Pork Ribs (160.32)
Road miles
1,442
across 5 mapped stops · furthest 1,019 mi
Schedule strength
68%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1586)
Purse competed for
$130K
listed at 3 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 3 state-championship entries
Master avg
644.14 / 720
2 Master contests · 0 GCs
Backyard avg
321.84 / 360
3 Backyard contests · 0 GCs
These overall scores sit on different scales (Master out of 720, Backyard out of 360), so they're kept separate — averaging them together would be misleading.
This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here.
Team of the Year (rank per category by season — the year links to the full board on kcbs.us)
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to Smokestack Lightning, each with one reason worth a look.
Smokestack Lightning has 4 rated contests, short of the five a power ranking needs, so its rating is still close to the 1500 every team starts on and 157 rated teams sit within a point of it.
#3,893 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1485
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#3,890 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1506
Both teams' first contest in the data came in 2016.
⚔ Compare careers#3,919 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1502
Level with Smokestack Lightning on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#3,878 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1486
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#3,918 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1485
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#3,891 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1485
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careersBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 166.8228 | 151.9428 | 160.65 | top 70% |
| Pork Ribs | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 175.4400 | 144.5256 | 160.32 | top 70% |
| Pork | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 173.1084 | 154.8116 | 163.96 | top 76% |
| Brisket | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 170.8344 | 150.2172 | 160.53 | top 78% |
“Calls” = top-10 category finishes (getting called to the stage). Scores here are the final weighted totals KCBS publishes; per-criterion appearance/taste/tenderness marks aren’t in the public results feed.
By field size and state
By contest size
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 1 | 0 | top 94% |
| Large (40+) | 4 | 0 | top 68% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poosa Q | 3 | 25 | 0 | top 62% | Oct 4, 2024 |
More numbers
Contests a season
1
across 5 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
AL
3 of 5 contests · 3 states in all
Contests visited
3
1 of them more than once
Opponents faced
302
finished ahead 135 times, behind 312
Longest layoff
4.2 yrs
Mar 2, 2018 → May 5, 2022
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20241 milestone
- Most recent contest Poosa Q
20223 milestones
20182 milestones
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score677.0288 Sonny's Smokin Showdown (INVITATIONAL ONLY)
- Career-best overall score677.0288 Sonny's Smokin Showdown (INVITATIONAL ONLY)
20161 milestone
- First tracked contest Rotary Club of Wakefield Rhode Island
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +6.6 | Poosa Q | May 5, 2022 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -10.5 | Rotary Club of Wakefield Rhode Island | Jul 22, 2016 |
| -10.2 | Poosa Q | Oct 4, 2024 |
| -0.9 | Poosa Q | Oct 5, 2023 |
Scores over time (% of a perfect score — tap a meat to add it)
Overall finish over time (top-% of field, lower is better)
Where they finish (overall)
Best vs average (by meat)
How entries end (by meat)
Season by season
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 93% | 85.4% | 85.4% |
| 2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 59% | 90.6% | 90.6% |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 35% | 92.2% | 92.2% |
| 2018 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 86% | 94% | 94% |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 94% | 84.9% | 84.9% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 4, 2024 | Poosa Q 🏅 Montgomery, AL | 55 / 59 (307.3372) | 54 (151.9428) | 55 (155.3944) | — | — |
| Oct 5, 2023 | Poosa Q 🏅 Montgomery, AL | 43 / 73 (326.2056) | 34 (166.8228) | 49 (159.3828) | — | — |
| May 5, 2022 | Poosa Q 🏅 Montgomery, AL | 25 / 72 (331.9772) | 45 (156.5372) | 3 (175.4400) | — | — |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Sonny's Smokin Showdown (INVITATIONAL ONLY) unrated Orlando, FL | 42 / 49 (677.0288) | 39 (166.2516) | 44 (166.8344) | 33 (173.1084) | 30 (170.8344) |
| Jul 22, 2016 | Rotary Club of Wakefield Rhode Island Kingston, RI | 32 / 34 (611.2572) | 24 (161.7028) | 33 (144.5256) | 29 (154.8116) | 32 (150.2172) |
An unrated contest — an invitational, or a Competitor or Kosher Series board — is in the record but doesn’t move the power rating.