PBR Australia Touring Pro Division
Cody Heffernan (Singleton, NSW) rode John Gill & Sons’ Ransom 2 for an event-high 88.5 points in the 2019 Yass Touring Pro Championship Round to record his third consecutive PBR Australia victory on Saturday night at the Yass Showgrounds.
View Heffernan’s 88.5 point ride aboard Ransom 2 here.
After winning buckles at PBR Australia Monster Energy Tour events in Bendigo and Ballarat earlier this month, Heffernan opened up his night against Buck from Diamond S Bucking Bulls with an 84 point ride. The score placed the 29-year-old fourth in the Round 1 and with the short-go score added, put him on an aggregate event total of 172.5 points.
Heffernan was one of just three riders who finished the event a perfect 2-for-2 with reigning PBR Australian National Champion Aaron Kleier (Clermont, QLD) finishing a distant second on 165.5 points with Troy Cross (Boorowa, NSW) a further point behind in third place.
Here is the Completed Yass Touring Pro Daysheet.
Following Round 1, it appeared the 2019 Yass Touring Pro was going to go a similar way to the 2018 event where Cliff Richardson (Gresford, NSW) took home the buckle from Daniel Rogan (Tamworth, NSW). Both riders were awarded 84.5 points following their rides aboard Jack Reacher (TnR Bucking Bulls) and Windy Gate (George Hempenstall) respectively.
Here is Richardson’s ride aboard Jack Reacher.
Lachlan Slade (Warwick, QLD) joined the pair with his own 84.5 point effort aboard Wallaby Bob (John Gill & Sons) to split the long round win three ways.
Check out Slade’s ride on Wallaby Bob here.
With Heffernan in fourth, young-gun Joshua Jones (Kingaroy, QLD) maintained his substantial 50% riding percentage in his rookie year, combining with Spokane (TnR Bucking Bulls) with an 83.5 point score to round out the Round 1 top-5.
Thirteen riders made the whistle and received a score in Round 1 and with two extra riders added to make a 15-man Championship Round; it was anyone’s game.
The first to ride in the short round was Troy Cross who put up 85.5 points aboard TnR Bucking Bulls’ Uncle Si. The score pushed his total aggregate to 164.5 points and moved him from the eleventh spot into the lead.
Aaron Kleier was next out aboard Lost Signal from TnR Bucking Bulls. The 21-year-old avenged his Dubbo Invitational buck off from late last season with an 85-point ride to move into the Yass Touring Pro lead by a solitary point.
The bulls created havoc with eight of the final nine riders hitting the dirt before the whistle with Cody Heffernan the lone cowboy out of the remaining competitors to ride time with his 88.5 point effort aboard Ransom 2 (John Gill & Sons).
Call Me Joe (TnR Bucking Bulls) was the co-high marked bull of the Yass Touring Pro event, marked 44.5 points once again to bump up his average bull score to just shy of 44-points.
He was joined by John Gill & Sons’ Stir Crazy who recorded his highest marked out of his PBR Australia career with 44.5 points awarded in the Championship Round.
Here are the Full Results from the Yass Touring Pro.
Cody Heffernan‘s Touring Pro Division haul of 305 points extended his lead in the 2019 PBR Australian National Standings and now sits on 1,680 points. The 29-year-old holds a lead of 355 points over Aaron Kleier with Lachlan Richardson (Gresford, NSW) a further 160 points adrift in third after his streak of nine qualified rides came to an end in Yass.
The Standings leaderboard remained similar to how we left Ballarat a fortnight ago; however, Cliff Richardson moved up a spot into sixth place, Lachlan Slade climbed up four spots to 12th and Troy Cross jumped to 17th at his first PBR start in almost 30-months.
View the updated PBR Australian National Standings.
PBR Pendleton Whiskey Velocity Tour
An injury forced Lawson Nobbs (Moura, QLD) to withdraw from the Fresno Invitational after being injured in the Practice Pen the day before the event. We keep our fingers crossed that it won’t keep him out too long.
Thanks to his win at the Bangor Classic, Nobbs gained a place to compete on the Unleash the Beast tour at the Billings Invitational in Billings, Montana in three weeks.
With the Aussie contingent down to just one rider, Kurt Shephard (Atherton, QLD) took on the whippy Long Haul in Round 1 at the Fresno Invitational.
The bull turned back sharply away from Shephard’s hand. The 24-year-old made a great move to stay with Long Haul, but the Evan Matthews’ bucker simply had too much speed. The buck off came at 4.62 seconds.
Shephard took on Savage from Jerry Brown Bucking Bulls in Round 2, and after the bull stalled in the early stages of the ride, the judges awarded a re-ride to the 24-year-old.
On his re-ride, Rusty Socks from Rodriguez threw himself down onto his right side at about the 3-second mark of the ride with Shephard lucky to get away unscathed.
Shepard faced Angry Elf (Evan Matthews), his third bull in under 30-minutes, who turned back to the right as the gateman ran clear. Shephard looked to have a good seat away from his hand until Angry Elf put in a big dive to dislodge the Aussie at 4.56 seconds.
The event was won by Marco Eguchi (Poa, SP) after the bulls shut out the field in the Championship Round.
Aaron Kleier remains the top-ranked Australia cowboy in the PBR Velocity Tour standings. Kleier sits 22nd, 257 points behind current leader Danilo Carlos Sobrinho.
Lawson Nobbs is just 3-points behind Kleier in 25th place with
PBR Unleash the Beast Tour
It was carnage at the Unleash the Beast Tour event in Kansas City this weekend with some veteran riders coming away with some pretty serious injuries.
Among the casualty list was Stormy Wing (Intracranial Hemorrhage), Cody Nance (Dislocated Hip), JB Mauney (Fractured Ribs) and Sean Willingham (Fractured Leg).
Matt Triplett took out Round 1 with an 89.75 point ride aboard Hocus Pocus (D&H Cattle/Barthold/Almand) while Cody Jesus was the victor in Round 2 courtesy of a 90-point effort on Rising Sun (Dakota Rodeo/Chad Berger/Clay Struve/Heald Pro Bulls).
Two riders entered the Championship Round 2-for-2 with Chase Outlaw and Ryan Dirteater separated by just half a point, 173.75 and 173.25.
Lucas Divino was the first rider to make the bell in the short-go. The big Brazilian put up 89.5 points on Mr Majestic (Cord McCoy/Bruce Wold) to catapult himself to the lead with an aggregate total of 176.5 points.
The rank pen dominated the Championship Round extending some very impressive buck off streaks in the process.
It came dow to the last matchup between Chase Outlaw and Bottoms Up (TNT Bucking Bulls/Hart Cattle Co). The Arkansan was flawless into his hand, scoring 89-points for 262.75 total and in the process, took over the No. 1 spot on the PBR World Standings Leaderboard.
Fearless from D&H Cattle, Buck Cattle and Tommy Julian was the high marked bull with an reckless 46.5 point, 2.5-second demolition job of Dakota Buttar.
Aaron Kleier is also the leading Aussie in the PBR World Standings, holding down the 12th spot on the leaderboard with 605 points accumulated, 1622.5 points behind Outlaw.
Cody Heffernan‘s win in Yass earned himself a further 60 points which bumped him up from 27th place to now sit 23rd in the world.
Cliff Richardson is the No. 35th ranked rider with Lachlan Richardson (44th), Jason Mara (46th) and Lawson Nobbs (47th) also inside the top-50.
PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour
Okotoks, Alberta’s Jordan Hansen was the only rider to finish the two-day event in Calgary a perfect 3-for-3 and took home the buckle with an aggregate total of 255 points.
The home state cowboy held off six riders who were 2-for-3 across the weekend with Riley Gagnon (Innisfail, AB) and Josh Frost (Randlett, UT) filling the spots on the podium.
Check back tomorrow for The PBR Rundown to see what is in store for bull riding fans this coming week.