Competition BBQ Cookoffs

smoky,
neat question!!!
i know in kcbs and fba competitions that the prides and hickories would have to have their gas connectors removed to be legal.
past that you bring up a much better point.
it is my feeling and the feeling of a lot of others in this forum that all smokers should be legal.
my own 2 cents is i don't care if you come with a stick burner, a gas rig,electric, pellet or even heck solar powered!!!
in the end it is the cook not the cooker that will determine who wins. look at "top chick" and her team. heck she aint but 10 or 11 and runs smoky mountains or something similar and beats a lot of folks. that simply reinforces my run whatcha brung mentality.
i know this wasn't really the explaination that you were looking for but wanted you to know there was some one in cyperland who was thinking like you
jack

pps.
i would love to watch peg run her sm150 in competitions.
she has learned to play the manual controls like a fiddle and for me it would be great fun
jack
ppps. dont let them kid you. it is possible to get crispy skin on chicken in an sm150

Good question, It comes down, pure and simple to "heat source".

The heat source as long as it's wood, is allowed. The OH & SP have their gas not working as Jack said. Pellet cookers run on pure wood.

Just another Political issue of defining barbecue by not how good it tastes, but what it's cooked on, on in.