They almost always walk
88%
of contests with a top-10 call
A call in 7 of 8 contests
A top-10 category call in 88% of their 8 contests — they get to the stage more often than not.
JC Holy Smokes
JC Holy Smokes is a competition barbecue team with 8 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2023 and 2024. Their best overall finish is 3rd of 9 at the Kenai River BBQ Competition (2023). They finished #549 in the 2024 Master Series Team of the Year standings.
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1495
Unranked — needs 5 rated contests, has 4
Contests
8
in the data
First seen
Mar 10, 2023
latest Jul 26, 2024 · 1.4 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
0
4 podiums
Overall top-10s
3
38% of 8 contests
Best top-10 run
3
straight overall top-10s, still running
Avg finish
top 66%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
88%
contests with a top-10 call
Consistency
±11.76
spread of their Master overall scores (lower = steadier)
Strongest meat
Pork Ribs
avg 170.18 · weakest Brisket (166.42)
Road miles
2,712
across 8 mapped stops · furthest 2,514 mi
Schedule strength
39%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1552)
Purse competed for
$18K
listed at 5 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 2 state-championship entries
Master avg
670.21 / 720
4 Master contests · 0 GCs
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 JC Holy Smokes, each with one reason worth a look.
JC Holy Smokes 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 128 rated teams sit within a point of it.
#3,418 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1500
Fewer contests behind them than JC Holy Smokes has cooked, 5 to 8, which makes theirs the less settled rating of the two.
⚔ Compare careers#3,419 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 40%
- Peak
- 1495
Level with JC Holy Smokes on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#3,408 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 40%
- Peak
- 1516
They were already cooking in 2013, 10 years before JC Holy Smokes's first contest.
⚔ Compare careers#3,422 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1495
Their last contest in the data was back in 2019, 5 years before JC Holy Smokes's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#3,432 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1495
Their last contest in the data was back in 2019, 5 years before JC Holy Smokes's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#3,420 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1504
Their last contest in the data was back in 2019, 5 years before JC Holy Smokes's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careersBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 6 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 176 | 154.2056 | 169.11 | top 56% |
| Pork Ribs | 6 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 176.5716 | 160.5372 | 170.18 | top 53% |
| Pork | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 170.8572 | 165.6800 | 167.84 | top 63% |
| Brisket | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 171.4172 | 162.8460 | 166.42 | top 70% |
“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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 3 | 0 | top 59% |
| Medium (20–39) | 1 | 0 | top 84% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenai River BBQ Competition | 2 | 3 | 0 | top 45% | May 31, 2024 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2023
4 contests
Contests a season
2.7
across 3 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
AK
7 of 8 contests · 2 states in all
Contests visited
3
1 of them more than once
Opponents faced
44
finished ahead 15 times, behind 37
Longest layoff
2.1 yrs
Jul 26, 2024 → Sep 17, 2026
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20262 milestones
- Career-best single call (Pork Ribs)176.5716 Alaska Grown BBQ Competition (ONE MEAT RIBS)
- Most recent contest Alaska Grown BBQ Competition (One Meat CHICKEN)
20241 milestone
- Career-best overall score679.3600 Kenai River BBQ Competition
20236 milestones
- First tracked contest BBQ & Brew Fest - Best in the Southwest
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score650.1600 BBQ & Brew Fest - Best in the Southwest
- First call Break Up Shake Up BBQ Contest (ONE MEAT RIBS)
- First overall top-10 Kenai River BBQ Competition
- First overall podium Kenai River BBQ Competition
- Peak power rating (1503) Kenai River BBQ Competition
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +9.1 | Kenai River BBQ Competition | Jun 30, 2023 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -8.5 | Last Frontier BBQ Throwdown | Jul 26, 2024 |
| -5.7 | BBQ & Brew Fest - Best in the Southwest | Mar 10, 2023 |
| -0.2 | Kenai River BBQ Competition | May 31, 2024 |
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | — | — | — |
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 100% | top 72% | 94.4% | 94% |
| 2023 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 75% | top 59% | 94.1% | 92.2% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 17, 2026 | Alaska Grown BBQ Competition (One Meat CHICKEN) Palmer, AK | — | 2 (174.2628) | — | — | — |
| Sep 17, 2026 | Alaska Grown BBQ Competition (ONE MEAT RIBS) Palmer, AK | — | — | 2 (176.5716) | — | — |
| Jul 26, 2024 | Last Frontier BBQ Throwdown 🏅 Eagle River, AK | 7 / 8 (673.6344) | 5 (171.4172) | 5 (173.1428) | 6 (165.6800) | 8 (163.3944) |
| May 31, 2024 | Kenai River BBQ Competition Soldotna, AK | 4 / 7 (679.3600) | 4 (166.8228) | 2 (173.7028) | 5 (167.4172) | 4 (171.4172) |
| Jun 30, 2023 | Kenai River BBQ Competition Soldotna, AK | 3 / 9 (677.6916) | 2 (176) | 4 (167.9884) | 4 (170.8572) | 6 (162.8460) |
| Apr 29, 2023 | Break Up Shake Up BBQ Contest (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) Palmer, AK | — | 6 (171.9656) | — | — | — |
| Apr 29, 2023 | Break Up Shake Up BBQ Contest (ONE MEAT RIBS) Palmer, AK | — | — | 7 (169.1656) | — | — |
| Mar 10, 2023 | BBQ & Brew Fest - Best in the Southwest 🏅 Yuma, AZ | 27 / 32 (650.1600) | 32 (154.2056) | 27 (160.5372) | 19 (167.4056) | 18 (168.0116) |