PBR World Championship Race Tightens
Courtesy PBR / October 18, 2019
2017 PBR World Champion Lockwood breaks Heartbreak Kid’s 38-out buckoff streak with high-marked ride of season to finish second, inching within 321.66 points of world No. 1 Jose Vitor Leme
Professional Bull Riders’ (PBR) fans are going to remember the sport’s 2019 late-season visit to Greensboro for a long time. With just one regular-season event remaining prior to the 2019 PBR World Finals, the already historically tight World Championship race significantly intensified as 2016 PBR World Champion Cooper Davis (Jasper, Texas) went a perfect 3-for-3 to win the Unleash The Beast’s Wrangler Long Live Cowboys Classic inside the Greensboro Coliseum. Meanwhile, 2016 PBR World Champion Jess Lockwood (Volborg, Montana) picked a bull who’s been impossible to ride on the premier series, conquering him for 93.75 points to halve Jose Vitor Leme’s (Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil) lead atop the world rankings.
Eduardo Apareido. Photo by Joe Daniels/Carolina Peacemaker
The Montana man then made a decision in the championship round bull draft that would prove worthy of a place in the PBR record books.
Selecting Heartbreak Kid (D&H Cattle/Buck Cattle/Erwin Cattle), the 22-year-old not only snapped the bull’s 38-out premier series buckoff streak, denying him the chance to surpass league-leader Bushwacker, but recorded the high-marked ride of the year, reaching the whistle in dramatic fashion for a colossal 93.75 points.
The high-marked score was Lockwood’s ninth 90-point ride of the year and marked his 12th round win of 2019.
The flawless 3-for-3 showing earned Lockwood a second-place finish overall, allowing him to decimate No. 1 Leme’s lead atop the rankings.
Lockwood left the Greensboro Coliseum $20,350 richer, but more importantly netted 400 world points.
While he remains No. 2 in the world rankings, he is now just 321.66 points behind No. 1 Leme, after entering the event 671.66 back.
Going 1-for-3 in Greensboro, Leme, who rode ZZ Top (Blake Sharp) for 87.25 points in Round 2, finished 10th overall to earn $2,200 and 50 world points.
Historically, any rider within 2,000 world points of the world No. 1 ranking at the start of the World Finals is a legitimate contender for the season’s World Championship. However, 3,300 points are available across the five days of competition.
