Three-time champion pumpkin chunker The Big 10 Inch and challenger American Chunker met Oct. 9 in a possible preview of this year’s world championship, set for Nov. 5-7 in Bridgeville, Del.
From a field on Bayview Rd., the machines fired pumpkins over 3000 feet into Great Salt Bay, where local firefighters noted the GPS coordinates for precise measurements.
“Practice is imperative,” said Brian Labrie, Team Captain for American Chunker. American Chunker is a newcomer to the sport. “We went down to [the world championship in] Delaware last year and saw different machines and thought we could do one better,” Labrie said.
Eleven months and an estimated $60,000-$70,000 later, The American Chunker was born.
Labrie owns a small landscaping company in New Hampshire, he said, but his background in machine fabrication and welding helped him build The American Chunker.
Labrie and his crew ran their machine at two-thirds power Saturday, but the height, distance and climactic splash of each pumpkin delighted the crowd.
According to a statement on American Chunker’s website, the Big 10 Inch “barely edged out” American Chunker.
