The Serial Grillers barbecue team from Yorktown, Virginia, have been to all five Flames on the Flint BBQ Cookoffs. That’s why winning the competition last Saturday felt so good.

Team members Mark Green and Nikki Makris took the Grand Champion trophy and the championship belt on stage and smiled in front of hundreds of other barbecue pitmasters.

Serial Grillers placed in the top 10 of three of the four categories: Chicken (6), Pork Ribs (10) and Pork (1), which was a perfect score of 180. They placed 24th in the brisket category.

“We got a couple barbecue restaurants, so we take what we got from there, bring it and see how it does around the country,” Green said. “It just happened to be our day today.”

Green said it felt great to win after the 14-hour drive to Bainbridge from Yorktown. He and Makris will travel next to the Smokin’ In the Square BBQ Cookoff in Pensacola this weekend. They’ll return home with $5,000 for the win.

Serial Grillers wasn’t the only team to land a perfect score of 180 in a category. The team Smoke This turned in a perfect submission for Chicken. The first place in the Chicken category is named the Bill Allen Award in honor of Bill Allen, who died of a heart attack three years ago at Flames on the Flint after scoring a perfect 180 and winning the Chicken category.

The overall runner-up, Pit Crew from Newnan, said they got their name from NASCAR.

“We have never got a call out at this contest, so we were really excited when we even got called,” said team member Tina Cannon.

Pit Crew was hot off winning Grand Champion at a competition in Lawrenceville the previous weekend. The team has been competing since 2010.

“It used to be a big deal, because they didn’t realize a lady was in charge, but now they know who I am,” Cannon said.

Cannon was a featured contestant on Travel Channels “American Grilled” show filmed in Savannah, Georgia, and is also a team competitor on the show “Bama-Q”.