Hot Wings and Hot Rods returns to Champaign

By Jenny Horne

The second annual “Hot Wings and Hot Rods” event is returning to Champaign on Sunday and Monday.

Held at Fluid Event Center with the Sundowners Car Club, the free event features a hot wing cook-off, multiple wing contests, a car show and an array of bands.

Participating vendors are Main Street Wingery, Gracie’s, Smokey’s
House BBQ, Bud’s BBQ, Chester’s BBQ and Crowridge Farm Ice Cream. Jeff Grant, owner and
CEO of the Fluid Event Center, said that his favorite part about the
event is getting to eat all of the wings.

“The hot wings are definitely the best part,” Grant said. “We have some great food
trucks coming in this time around. Chester’s is already one of my favorites so
we will see if he holds up.” 

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In
addition to all-you-can-eat-wings, there were also be multiple wing-eating
contests. There will be a hot wing cook-off, a wing eating contest and a hottest wing contest.

According to the Hot
Wings and Hot Rods Facebook page, the world record for eating hot wings is held by Patrick Bertoletti, who ate 444 chicken wings in 30 minutes.

In addition to wing eating, there is the “Hot Rods” car show. Registration for the car show is from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, and the voting for the cars will be from
2 to 4 p.m. Then, the Top 10 awards, with trophies involved, will be
awarded at 4:30 p.m. Grant said there will be nearly 150 “Hot Rods” at the event this
year.

There will be constant live music throughout the event. Some of the
bands include The Bashful Youngens, New Riders of the Golden Maze and Cody
Lee. 

When comparing
the event this year to the debut of the event last year, Grant said that he
thinks there will be a much better turnout.

“This year there will be a lot more cars, a lot more vendors and we
spiced up the Buffalo Wild Wings hot wing-eating contest,” he said. “Hopefully we will
have someone willing to give it a try.”