This weekend was very busy with the PBR and ABBI World Finals dominating the schedule, plus we had the final stop of the PBR Australia Monster Energy Tour taking place in Airlie Beach.
Let’s take a quick look at how it all unfolded:
2020 PBR Australia Monster Energy Tour
The 2020 Airlie Beach Invitational wrapped up the PBR Australia regular season and now we head to Townsville to crown a National Champion.
We will have to wait for PBR Australia to confirm the final field with both injured and international riders holding down qualification spots.
I will have more on that later this week, but at this stage it looks as though the cut will come at the No. 27 spot.
Here is the 2020 PBR Australian National Standings
Event 1
Bailey Woodard picked up the third event win of his career and his first at the Monster Energy Tour level in the afternoon session.
The Dingo cowboy moved up eight placings in the 2020 PBR Australian National Standings to to sit in 8th place after he covered Dunne Bulls’ Bad Moon in the long round for 85-points.
The bulls shut the riders out in the Championship Round with POA Lock n Load from Dittmann Bucking Bulls the best performer. He was marked 43.5 points in the final matchup against Woodard.
Second place was a three-way tie between Mareeba’s Kurt Shephard, Barcaldine’s Jackson Gray and Bundaberg’s Brendan Buckholz. All riders were scored 81.5 points.
Shephard covered Dunne Bull’s Under Seige into his hand early in the round. Gray then rode Kalkadoon Kid from Brandenburg Bucking Bulls and in the very next trip, Buckholz received the score on Oooh Yah, who is also from the Brandenburg pen.
Buckholz made a huge leap up to 21st in the standings after starting the day in 35th place. Gray also entered the Top-10 after moving up a couple of spots.
Joseph Down and Jack Keats split fifth place with dual 80.5 point efforts.
Warnambool rookie Down combined with M60 from Dunne Bulls’ while the Cloncurry cowboy Keats matched well with Rip Slinger from Dittman Bucking Bulls.
Brady Fielder, Aaron Kleier and Braydon Wellby completed the rundown.
There wasn’t too much movement in the Top-15 of the standings besides Woodard, or the gains that were made, were wiped away in the second event.
Event 2
As the sun set it was Aaron Kleier who rose to the occasion and in the process, took over the No. 1 spot in the 2020 PBR Australian National Standings.
The dual National Champion now leads the race for the Gold Buckle by 56-points after Lachlan Richardson was shut-out in both events at Airlie Beach.
Kleier got his night started with a excellent 85.5 point ride aboard Bucksnort from Wallace Bucking Bulls.
The Clermont bull rider then produced the ride of the night aboard 2019 PBR Australia Buking Bull of the Year POA Fully Locked & Loaded. The pair combined for a massive score of 89-points with the bull’s share coming in at 44-points.
The score took Kleier’s total aggregate score to 174.5 points which earned him his fourth win of the season.
Nobody was cheering harder on the back of the chutes as Kleier rode for the win than Brady Fielder, who was leading the event at the time.
Fielder finished fourth in the long round, marked 82-points aboard Silent Rage from Dittmann Bucking Bulls and added a further 86 points, thanks to a slick ride on Brandenburg and MJ Bucking Bulls’ Gangatino.
The Clermont talent’s total score of 168-points and runner up finish bumped him up a single spot to now hold down the 6th place in the standings.
Sam Woodall split the Round 1 win with Kleier thanks to his 85.5 point trip aboard Iron Jacket from Wallace Bucking Bulls.
The Heywood young-gun was unable to capitalise on his excellent start with his short round opponent Black Tuxedo posting a massive 44.5 points to take home the high-marked trip for Wallace Bucking Bulls.
Rookie of the Year leader Jake Curr finished in fourth place. The Mount Isa talent rode Brandenburg Bucking Bull’s Hair Trigger in the long round for 83.5 points.
Jackson Gray rounded out the Top-5 with 80-points aboard Tiger King fom the Brandenburg string, with Brendan Buckholz and Mitchel Paton also making the whistle in Round 1.
2020 PBR World Finals
Brazil’s Jose Vitor Leme has broken through claim his first 2020 PBR World Championship.
The 24-year-old finished with 17 event wins for the year thanks to an outstanding riding percentage of 65.98% and included 9 victories at the Monster Energy Tour level.
After entering the final weekend with a sizable lead in the standings, Leme ultimately finished 542.09 points ahead of Joao Ricardo Viera and 763 points ahead of Jess Lockwood.
In his third trip to the PBR World Finals, Leme rode three of his five bulls with his aggregate total of 231.50 points good enough to finish sixth in the event.
His World Final performance was highlighted by his 97.75 point Round 3 winning ride aboard Woopaa from Barker Bulls where he was marked an incredible 49-points.
View the final 2020 PBR World Standings.
The World Finals Event title was won by Boudreaux Campbell who finished the weekend 4-for-5 with an aggregate total of 358 points. The Texan also claimed the Rookie of the Year title.
Round 1 featured the rank pen and it was Derek Kolbaba who came out on top with a monster 92.75 point performance aboard Boogie Bomb (Bland Bucking Bulls/Cooper/Scruggs).
Sixteen bulls were ridden in Round 2, which was a draft round and the best of those was Keyshawn Whitehorse who went 91-points on Rocky (Cord McCoy/Ronnie Chism Farm & Ranch)
The top ABBI Classic bulls were out in Round 3 and as I mentioned earlier, it was Jose Vitor Leme who used his ride aboard Woopaa for a monster 95.75-point score and secured the World Title.
Defending World Champion Jess Lockwood ended his person shut-out in Texas with a 91-point round winning ride aboard Little 2 Train (Jane Clark and Gene Owen).
Keyshawn Whitehorse produced a 93.75 point ride aboard Chiseled (Flinn/D&H Cattle Co) to take home maximum points in the Championship Round.
During the opening round, defending champion Smooth Operator (Dakota Rodeo/Julie Rosen/Clay Struve/Chad Berger) moved ahead of Chiseled in the race for Bucking Bull of the Year with a 46-point trip.
Smooth Operator was then marked 46.25 points in the Championship Round and that would be enough to go back-to-back and become the 2020 World Champion Bucking Bull after Chiseled couldn’t exceed the bar set.
View the full 2020 World Finals results here.
2020 ABBI World Finals
Barker Bulls’ 124 Woopaa took out both the 2020 ABBI World Finals Classic Champion with scores of 92.20 and 93.40 points. He also took out the end of year 2020 ABBI World Champion Classic bull award with an average mark of 91.02 points.
His World Finals aggregate total of 185.60-points was enough to edge out Cord McCoy and Steve Best’s 612 Ridin Solo in the event by just 0.60-points and 0.11-points in the 2020 standings.
Last weekend at the Velocity Tour Finals, 34E Juju took home the Derby crown for the Tommy Julian and D&H Cattle Company partnership with a 92.60 point trip.
The Futurity World Championship was won by CMc826 Little V for Cord McCoy and Kevin Graber after he put together an outstanding season with an average mark of 92.38 points. He posted scores of 89.8 points and 93 points while in Ft. Worth to seal the win.
Australian contractor Scott Maynes tasted success with F42 Big Wave winning the Futurity World Finals Event Title. He is partnered with Joey and Sugar Almand and D&H Cattle Company and they placed second in the year-end standings. At the finals, the bull was marked 91.40 points in Round 1 and then backed that up with 91.80 points in Round 2 for a total of 183.2 points.
The Juvenile Division was taken out by G6 El Cid from Rockin R and Jim & Shannon Barr. The bull was marked 93.60 points.
There were 12 bulls were marked 90-points or higher.
956 Tru Blu Gangsta was the best of the yearlings with Australian interests, marked 84 points to finish 59th in the event for Cord McCoy, Mitch James and Jason Dittmann.
The Junior division was won by Wacey Hart and 930F Not Yet for Plummer and Hart Cattle. He posted a score of 89.40 points.
Staci Addison took out the Cowgirl’s division with 35F Cool Whip marked 92.20 points for the Tommy Julian and D&H Cattle partnership
Visit the ABBI World Finals page for the complete results.
Stay tuned to Ride The Rage for full coverage of this week’s PBR action.