On February 11, the West Michigan Corvair Club held our annual chili cook-off.  We had a very large turnout and a lot of chili to sample.  There was a total of 14 chili recipes to be tasted as well as four different kinds of cornbread.  Even though there was no prize for dessert, there was still quite a few to sample.  After all of the tasting was done and all of the votes counted, Dave and Marilyn Dykwell were voted as the winners.  Coming in second was Doug and Becky Lectka with Ryan and Carolyn Counterman winning the best cornbread.

After our bellies were full, we commenced with the balloon races.  We did this activity back in 2010 and it was a lot of fun so we decided to bring it back.  After quite a few heat races, the final pitted Matt Peterson against Dave Dykwell.  As you can see from the video below, Matt was the champion.

With the large turnout and the quality of the chili, the event was deemed a huge success!  Thank you to everyone for coming and we'll see you next year!

Scroll to the end of the page to see a few videos from the event.  You can see them all at YouTube.com; just search for West Michigan Corvair Club balloon races.

Click on any image below to see a larger picture.

The chili waiting to be tasted.	Everybody waiting to taste the chili.
Getting the track set up.	Dig in!
Let the judging commence.	Dave explains the rules.
The first heat.	Steve wins by a mile.
Waiting for the green light.	Getting ready to go.
A lot of blue tape on the blue balloon.	Matt gets ready for his semi-final race.
Matt gets some help from his pit crew.	Matt beats John in a close semi-final race.
Getting ready for the final race.	How did it end?  Watch the final race video below.
Having a hard time getting started.	Dave is victorious over Carolyn.
Koning vs. Koning.	Matt is victorious in the final race.