On Sunday, January 20, Speed Rack headed back to Texas, but this time to San Antonio, for the second city of the 2013 leg of the Speed Rack 2012-2013 National Tour. Ladies from all over the Lone Star State fought hard for a place in the judged portion of the competition.
As one of the highlight events of the San Antonio Cocktail Conference, guests eagerly converged on the main ballroom at the historic St. Anthony Hotel promptly at 7pm to watch the ladies compete. Over 200 guests were treated to sponsors’ punches and cocktails, as well as beer and non-alcoholic offerings. Host Chris Patino run the show with style as always, as DJ Dule Jesus (aka Ryan Fitzgerald) kept the crowd entertained as the ladies prepared to go to battle. We had two instances of ladies from the same bar competing against each other in the first round (Karah vs. Elisabeth of Esquire Tavern and Jessica vs. Tacy of drink.well)
The impressive panel of judges included Julie Reiner, Chris Bostick, Sasha Petraske and reigning Miss Speed Rack Texas Alba Huerta. The round began with the judges each calling out a drink for the girls to make. The contestants had to make the drinks as quickly – and as accurately – as possible. The judges then compared the girls’ drinks side by side and issued penalty seconds to the girls for any mistakes made. The girl with the lowest time was declared the winner and moved on to the next round. In a Speed Rack first, we ended up with an exact tie in the quarterfinals round of Bonnie vs. Whitney, which created a suspenseful tie-breaker round where Whitney emerged victorious.
Six heated battles ensued, until we were down to a final round with Karah Carmack facing Madelyn Kay. Hometown hero Karah was able to pull out the win and will be representing Texas in the finals in NYC in May.
A fun time was had by all, and most importantly, with the help of fundraisers in Dallas, Austin and Houston, in total over $15,000 was raised for breast cancer research, education and prevention.
