The 20th Annual API Chili Cook-off , held this weekend at the Casper Events Center, is in the books and what a weekend to celebrate 20 years of cooking. See a gallery of participant pictures HERE.

It all started with a calcutta on Friday night with an enthusiastic crowd bidding up the teams competing, not only to add to the winners shares but also to benefit the 26 non-profit groups on the list to receive a portion of the proceeds. In a record breaking night a total of $127,900.00 was raised just by the calcutta. That number beat last years calcutta by $50,000.00!! Half of that amount went directly to the charities with the other half to be divided amongst the winning cook-off teams. 1st place in both the red and green chili categories paid the winning bidders $12,790.00, 2nd place $9592.50, 3rd place $6395.00 and 4th place paid out $3197.50. Not always were the winning bidders the teams themselves, however the rules allowed each team to buy in for half regardless of who won the bid. And now the winners!

Red Chili:

4th Place- JPI

3rd Place- Hilltop National Bank

2nd Place- 1st Interstate Bank

1st Place- Rocky Mountain Oilfield Warehouse

Green Chili:

3rd Place- A Tie between Patterson UTI and BICO

2nd Place- Wyoming Machinery

1st Place- Jim Edgeworth Real Estate/ Donna Martinson

The Peoples Choice Award Winner was HOMAX

The participants also went all out in decorating their booths in the 50′s theme and were judged as well.

Best Decorated Booths include,

3rd Place- Geiner Motor Co

2nd Place- Industrial Screen and Maintenence

1st  Place- TIC

Of note was the fact that two of the calcutta winners, Jack Palmer and Greiner Motors, donated their winnings back to the non-profits involved.

The final numbers are not in yet but with a record breaking calcutta and record breaking crowds this 20th year anniversary will go down as one of the best yet.

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