Anyone driving from the northeast to the NC State Fair ought to take I-95 to new US 64 (which is not yet on any online maps) and not I-85 to US 1.

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WLTX has a video of ultramarathoner/competitive eater Ray Krolewicz competing against one of its anchors.

The Durham Herald sun has a general preview of the fair mentioning that Joe LaRue will attend the grilled cheese contest.

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This column by G. D. Gearino at newsobserver.com laments the replacement of last year’s sweet potato contest at the NC State Fair with a grilled cheese qualifier.

This article profiles an ultramarathoner, Ray Krolewicz, who plans to compete in the South Carolina State fair grilled cheese qualifier and then run a 50K (31 mile) race the next day.

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nctimes.com has an article about the grilled cheese qualifier held at the (inland) Southern California Fair at Lake Perris which was won by Jed Donahue with the impressive total of 20.5 sandwiches. The article focuses on Joe Camacho who ate 7 sandwiches. (2nd place, UC Irvine graduate student Justin Mih, did 14 and 3rd place (not named) did 13)

Updated 10/11 8:00 am – pe.com has an article about the contest (registration required)

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The AP has an article (at abcnews.com) about the goldenpalace.com grilled cheese qualifier held Saturday at the Arkansas State Fair. The results of that contest are:

1. Cookie Jarvis, Long Island, NY, 19 sandwiches
2. Pat Philbin, Moonachie, NJ, 17.5 sandwiches
3. Michael Finnell, Sherwood, AR, 11.5 sandwiches (after 1 minute overtime to decide 3rd)
4. Christopher Tarleton, Corpus Christi, TX 10 sandwiches (lost overtime to Finnell)

With 4 qualifiers left, notable eaters who have yet to qualify include Joey Chestnut and Badlands Booker. (Hopefully Carlene LeFevre will recover in time to participate in the Phoenix contest) If Joey Chestnut competes in the Southern California Fair contest to be held Monday, it will be interesting to see if he challenges Tim Janus’ record of 31. (It has been rumored that Kobayashi will appear at the Southern California contest) The article mentions that there will be a finals contest at an undetermined date and time to determine the allocation of the $20,000.

Updated 10/9 3:55 pm The Arkansas Democrat Gazette has an article mentioning the contest.

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The most recent contest for which the goldenpalace.com grilled cheese page has results is the August 27 event held at the Nebraska State Fair. It is surprising the internet casino would spend over $40,000 in prize money (14 qualifiers *$1,750 + $20K bonus) and more in contest administration and promotion and not bother to provide up to date information on the event they are funding.

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Corrected Albuquerque grilled cheese results from Skinnyboy. Sorry for any inconvenience resulting from my assumption that Donovan Busta was the likely winner based on the headline saying the winner was from Colorado.

1. Leland Collins – 16
2. Levi Oliver- 13.5
3. Andrew Lane – 12

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abqjournal.com for September 25 has a headline (under New Mexico & the West) mentioning that a Coloradan (Donovan Busta in all probability) won Saturday’s goldenpalace.com grilled cheese qualifier at the New Mexico State Fair with 16 sandwiches. Reading the article requires a paid subscription. Levi Oliver was also expected to compete.

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Here is a listing of the winners of the GoldenPalace.com grilled cheese qualifiers, sorted by number of sandwiches along with the upcoming contests. The winning totals are significant because $20,000 will be distributed to the higher finishers. Notable eaters who have yet to qualify include Joey Chestnut, Cookie Jarvis and Eric “Badlands” Booker.

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The Salt Lake City Tribune has an article about the grilled cheese contest Sunday with some information about winner Ron Koch. None of the other competitors are named (2nd place finished with 11.5 sandwiches)

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September 17 GoldenPalace.com grilled cheese qualifier, Oklahoma State Fair, Oklahoma City

From newsok.com: (video available and registration required)

1. Crazy Legs Conti, NYC, 17.5 sandwiches
2. Ryan Delano, Oklahoma City,17 sandwiches
3. Levi Oliver, Austin, TX 14 sandwiches

September 18 Krystal Square Off, Gwinnett County Fair, North Atlanta, GA

From ajc.com:

1. Tim “Eater X” Janus, NYC, 39 Krystals
2. Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough, 27 Krystals
3. Shaun Kessler, 26 Krystals

September 18 GoldenPalace.com grilled cheese qualifier, Salt Lake City, UT
(updated 9/19 10:51 pm) (from ifoce.com and bigbrian.org) Ron Koch wins with 18.5 sandwiches. (No other finishers are listed) “Big” Brian Subich misses the contest due to a missed connecting flight in Phoenix.

I have been unable to find an article about the contest in the Salt Lake City papers, but I have found a polygamy news section

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The Grilled Cheese Page on goldenpalace.com has been updated with writeups of all the August qualifiers. The only pictures available are from the first two contests. Some pictures of Rich LeFevre at the Taste of Colorado contest can be found at the Canon digital photography forum.

That page also has a link to a profile of Donovan Busta from the Boulder Dirt written before the Colorado qualifier.

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The Lincoln Journal Star has a full article on the grilled cheese contest at the Nebraska State Fair. It mentions that Tim Janus often ate two sandwiches at a time after soaking them in Key Lime flavored carbonated water.

Omahans Alicia Garcia and Nikki Sanders consumed 10 and 9 sandwiches respectively, totals close to the winning Sturgis result of 11.75 sandwiches. Hopefully their feeling sick after the contest will not prevent them from entering future competitions.

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At the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln, Tim “Eater X” Janus wins with a record smashing performance of 31 sandwiches. This destroys Sonya Thomas’ record of 25 set earlier this year and is the best mark so far on the Grilled Cheese circuit by almost 10. Sonya has already changed her number of records on sonyatheblackwidow.com to 25 from 26, a very classy move. Sonya might regret advising Tim Janus at the US Open that he needed to improve his stomach capacity.

From omaha.com (registration required so I will just quote the relevant part)

STATE FAIR PARK – How do you eat 31 grilled-cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes?

Dip them in water and wash them down with soda, which dissolves the bread, according to Tim “Eater X” Janus, a New York City stock broker and the No. 7-ranked speed eater in the world.

Janus, 26, established what is apparently a world record for downing grilled cheese at the fair Saturday. He qualified for the national championship in October.

About 250 people witnessed the spectacle.

Eater X, who donned face paint to psych out a dozen local rivals, said another trick is to eat big meals to stretch out your stomach.

Mike Nafziger, a chef from Fremont, placed a distant second with 14 sandwiches. Jason Smith of Bellevue finished third with 131/2 sandwiches.

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The Fremont Tribune has a preview of Saturday’s Grilled Cheese contest at the Nebraska State Fair, focusing on Mike Nafziger, who finished 5th at last Sunday’s smoked pork contest. It does not mention if any top ranked IFOCE members are expected. It also says that the grilled cheese finals will be held in Los Angeles.

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The Golden Palace website has a page on the grilled cheese qualifiers with pictures and results from the San Diego and Sturgis events and a video from Detroit (but nothing from Springfield)

Thanks Patrick Bertoletti for the link

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The Detroit Free Press has put out another article four days after a contest focusing on locals finishing out of the top spots about the Grilled Cheese qualifier at the Michigan state fair. The article mentions that there will be a grilled cheese finals in Phoenix in October. (I was not sure if there would be a final contest or if the bonus money would be alloted to the best finishers in the qualifiers)

Thanks Patrick Bertoletti for the link

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Sonya Thomas won the San Diego grilled cheese contest August 3. Her total of 21.5 sandwiches was a considerable dropoff from the 25 she ate in February. Rich Lefevre was second with 20 and Carlene LeFevre took third place with 15. Over the past month, Rich Lefevre has participated in eating contests in every region of the country except for the gulf coast.

There are 14 remaining grilled cheese sandwich contests in the Golden Palace circuit, the next one taking place at the famous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD on August 10.

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signonsandiego.com has an article promoting Sonya Thomas’ appearance in a grilled cheese sandwich contest at the minor league Surf Dawgs game Wednesday. There is not really any new information in the article. Sonya will attempt to break her record of 25 sandwiches in 10 minutes which she set in Venice Beach in February. There will be 15 (!) grilled cheese sandwich contests in the circuit, the next one located in South Dakota next week. If there are no limits on the number of contests an eater can enter, Sonya could really rack up some frequent flyer miles going to grilled cheese sandwich contests. All time leading run-scorer and base stealer Rickey Henderson plays for the Surf Dawgs, so if there was a Hall of Fame for competitive eating there would be two future Hall of Famers at the Surf Dawgs stadium Wednesday.

Pictures of Sonya and Carlene LeFevre at the last grilled cheese contest can be found at:
http://www.virginmarygrilledcheese.com/welcome.php?pf=%2Fstory_eating_contest.php

ESPN.com takes note of the US Open two days after it is televised in this column which solely consists of praise for Kobayashi.

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