Written by Kim Finnigan, Staff Writer, The Courier-Express

CLEARFIELD, PA < Six pounds of beef, one large onion, two whole tomatoes,

a half a head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese, top and bottom buns, and a

cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, banana peppers and an unspecified amount of pickles. Those are the ingredients that make up one of

the 'Ye Old 96'er', a mammoth hamburger which, including all the trimmings, weighs about 11 pounds, and is served at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub off

Route 879 in Clearfield.

Denny's hosted a 'Burger Challenge' Monday 6/28/04 that will be featured as part of the Food Network's 'Unwrapped' series. Participants came from as far away as New York and Ohio to try to tackle the burgers that are a specialty at Denny's.

"We already had a 2- and 3-pound challenge, which I thought were awesome, but my daughter was going to Clarion University and she called and said 'Dad, I think somebody up here has a 4-ounder, 1 which is bigger than us and I said 'Oh yeah, well today we have a 6-pounder,' that's exactly how it was conceived, Denny Leigey Sr., owner of Denny's, said.

"Lori Weis of Hawk Run actually ate everything but the bottom of the bun," Leigey said. She ran 4 miles a day and drank 2 gallons of water for two weeks to prepare," Leigey said. Eric Badlands Booker, who is a competitive eater, attempted it three times. The third time, he said I'm not leaving til it's gone. I know I didn't get it (in the three hours allotted), but he stayed for 7 1/2 hours and ate the entire burger."

The 6-pounder was only one part of the challenge. Seven people signed up to try to break the speed records on the 3- and 6-pound burgers. Competitors are given an hour to finish the 2-pound burger and an hour and a half to finish the 3-pounder.

Over the years, people from all over the world have attempted to tackle the behemoth burgers. "Every weekend we have someone new coming through our door," Leigey said. "We've had people from Hong Kong, Korea, Australia, England, Ireland and Germany."

And there's no set strategy when it comes to eating.  Dave 'Coondog' O'Karma, world doughnut eating champion and competitive eater from Akron, Ohio, talked about how he would try to down the 6-pound burger.   "I'm a professional eater and I like a challenge, but this 6-pound burger is like getting in the ring with Mike Tyson," O'Karma said. "I know it's going to be a knockout, and I'm not expecting to beat the burger. I plan on going in there really hard for like 10 minutes and getting as much as I can down, then holding out for the next two hours and seeing how much I can get. To me, it's a war between common sense and competitive spirit."   This was O'Karma's second attempt of the 6-pounder. He has competed in eating contests all over the world and holds the title of 'World Doughnut Eating Champion' after eating 30 doughnuts in five minutes.

The smallest, and only, female competing was Denny's server, Rachel Pittman. "I'm probably not going to get the whole thing down, but I'm going to try to," Pittman said. "If I can get the meat down, I'll be happy."

Pittman said her size is not a disadvantage. "I think smaller people can actually eat more," she said. Pittman planned to pace herself and eat like normal.

The challenge began at about 1 p.m. when the servers began bringing out the burgers. Chris and Darrell Curley and Kurt Brown attempted to eat the 2-pound burgers, Arnie 'Chowhound' Chapman of the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters, Ted Maines, Andy Moore, Tom Spitz and Chris Kolp attempted the 3-pounders and O'Karma, Pittman, Keith Benette, Kevin Wood and Matt Graham tried to finish the 6-pound burger.

First to finish, at approximately 1:45 p.m., was Darrell Curley of DuBois. As time ticked on, more and more green-faced competitors gave up. A large crowd of spectators cheered their favorites until finally only O'Karma and Pittman were left. With an hour and 15 minutes left to go on their three-hour deadline, Pittman and O'Karma decided to call it a draw. Much to the amazement of the spectators, Pittman continued to snack on tomato slices even after eating a good third of the burger. "If it were 11 pounds of tomatoes, I would have been fine," Pittman joked.

Arnie 'Chowhound' Chapman made a valiant attempt to break the 36-minute record for the three-pounder."I think it was just too much food," Chapman said. "I could have pulled off 5 or 6 pounds, but with everything on it, it was probably about 7 pounds so I think I went a little bit over my limit." Chapman was still optimistic. "I don't like to lose, so I'll be back to try it again," he said. "It's such a big burger that it's got a real thick crust around it," O'Karma

said. "I ate the meat inside but even with the ketchup and mustard, it was hard. I tried to pick it up and take a bite out of the whole thing and I think I sprained my jaw."

Leigey said 60 pounds of beef, six full heads of lettuce, 18 tomatoes, half a gallon of relish, a quart each of mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise, and half a gallon of banana peppers were used during the competition. Despite efforts from professionals as well as amateurs, the "Ye Old 96'er" plaque on the "Legends Wall" is still blank.