DEL MAR —— With a rapidity that amazed his fellow contestants, a 34-year-old University City resident downed 40 jalapeno peppers in five minutes Saturday at the San Diego County Fair.

Asked how he felt immediately after the fair's "hottest" contest, trophy winner David Bareno told the master of ceremonies that he couldn't say anything clean enough to quote. Then, he downed two doses of the Pepto-Bismol, which the fair provided as a gift to the prize-winner.

A fellow contestant begged for a sip of the pink stuff, and Bareno handed it over with a smile.

"I just feel a little hot around the lips," he said as he left the stage, swearing that he felt no real ill effects.

"He will," declared Bill Cobb, the fair's special contest coordinator.

Cobb's seen it all. Pointing to a row of garbage cans in front of the stage, Cobb said the unsightly trash cans are there because one year a contestant threw up into the sound system during the contest.

Bareno, who said he'd entered the contest as a "cheap thrill," was joined on stage by five fellow competitors —— all male. Girlfriends and wives pushed them forward.

Cobb set the tone by telling them the annual event's record holder ate 53 peppers in a five-minute period.

"We had one person a couple years ago who had never eaten a jalapeno, and she ate 45," he added.

On Saturday, nobody came close to Bareno's pepper-munching rate. After he downed the first 20, the two contestants sitting on either side of him stopped eating and started staring at him in disbelief.

"We have some people who try to eat just a couple more than the person closest to them, and we have the people who just eat until they die," Cobb declared. Saturday's second-place finisher consumed only 19. The other four contestants barely consumed eight each.

Bareno slowed down as he approached 30 and stopped eating before the clock ran out of time, despite shouts from the crowd of "Go for the record."

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.