When Thad Starr and his daughter Danica made the drive down from Oregon for Monday’s annual Half Moon Bay pumpkin weigh-off they thought might have a chance at winning the prestigious pride.

He’d grown a 1,620-pound pumpkin in the past and this one just seemed larger. Still, he had his doubts.

“Hopefully it’s the best one I’ve ever grown,” said the Pleasant Hill farmer hours before the final weigh-off said. “I’m not sure how big it is, but it is pretty big. My biggest is 1,610 (pounds) so hopefully it is bigger than that. I start really getting superstitious when it’s time to guess. We’ll let the scale tells us. We like to be surprised, not disappointed.”

Hours later when the massive pumpkin was lowered to the scale he wasn’t disappointed. It weighed in at 1775 pounds – a record for the annual event.

“It took all summer,” he said of the growing process. “It takes several hours a day (of care). I asked her (Danica) (if I should grow it) because we had to cancel a couple camping trips.”

Starr said it was a family project from the start.

“She planted the seed,” he said of his daughter.

Starr fell short of claiming a $25,000 bonus for breaking the 2000-pound world record, but he did walk around with $6 a pound -- $10,650.