Spring Fever for Competitive Eating

After a bit of a dry spell throughout the winter for the IFOCE, a pack of new competitions were recently announced, and March marked the official start of the 2007 Nathan's hot dog season. As you'll recall from last year, the eaters have to win a qualifier in order to be guaranteed a spot at the final Nathan's table in Coney Island on July 4th. As per tradition, the first qualifier was held in Sunrise, FL. You may remember a bit of an upset from last year in Sunrise, when Crazy Legs Conti overtook the local favorite, Joe LaRue, in a controversial overtime. This year, neither Conti nor LaRue showed up. In fact, the only pro-ranked eater who showed up was the current 6th ranked eater in world, Chip Simpson. Through a rain storm, Chip seemed to be eating not against the other eaters present, but against those top competitors he know would be watching this performance closely. He closed out the qualifier with a whopping 39.25 HDB in 12 minutes, beating his personal best and giving him the second highest American qualifier total (surpassed only by Joey Chestnut's astounding feat of 50 HDB in last year's Vegas qualifier).

Chip is also wracking up the points for his Fantasy Eating team. Out of 50 members across five teams, Chip currently holds the third highest individual score of 44 points (Joey is in first with 103, and Tim "Eater X" Janus in second with 46). But of course Fantasy Eating is all about the team, and Chip's points combined with team member Pat Bertoletti's fourth highest score of 34 points, puts their team--The Hungry Hooligans--into second place overall.

Chip has certainly stepped up his game in the 2007 season and let it be known that he's a force to be reckoned with. He was kind enough to answer a few probing question for True Fan.

Did this competition feel different for you? Was there a point where you knew you were going to surpass your personal best?

I felt like I was going to surpass my best about the halfway point. Even though it was pouring rain and literally buns were flying off the table that I had to bend over and pick up while eating... I knew somehow that I would at least better my mark by one... I just had to after my pitiful performance at Coney last year.

Do you credit your success to better physical training or better mental training? You can tell us: have you been reading "The Secret"?

I credit it totally to mental training. Just telling myself to push through any pain and keep eating.

Why Sunrise and not a different qualifier?

The Sunrise qualifier fit my schedule best. I will be in Italy most of June and will miss most of the qualifiers. I wanted to qualify and not have to worry about it if something went wrong right before I left because then I would not be at Coney at all this year.

It seems like you were the only pro-ranked eater who attended. Did people hear you were coming and decided to stay home?

I have heard that some pros did not show up but I can not validate nor deny those claims at this time.

Who do you predict we'll see at the finals that we didn't see last year?

Juliet Lee will most certainly be there... also I believe Arturo Rios will make his presence felt.

Pat Bertoletti is right on Joey's tail, and you're right on Pat's tail. Koby aside, are you going into these next months thinking of your most immediate competition as Joey or Pat?

I think I am close to Pat in some foods and close to Joey in some foods. I feel my worst foods just seem to be the ones that they are best at. Any sandwich type food seems to give me trouble and those seem to be primarily what the majors (Nathan's and Krystal) are.

Your performance at Sunrise pulled your fantasy team, The Hungry Hooligans, ahead of the previous front runners, The Manitoba Meatsweats. With you and Pat B. on the same team, will there be any way to stop your team's ascent?

I believe our fantasy team when it is all said and done will definitely come out on top.