PBR Tulsa - Event Review Part II

The sun rises early in Tulsa, or so it seemed. After getting to bed about 3:30 am, it was time to rise and shine for the last day of the PBR event in Tulsa, but first, it was time to go to cowboy church. We made our way over to the arena for the start of church, which is conducted by Riding High Ministries and Todd Pierce. We have not missed a service at any event, it is that good. Todd is the pastor for Riding High Ministries and is plain spoken and to the point, and as Tammie said recently, his voice is "soothing". LeAnn Hart led the music, including one inspiring song that she wrote. After the service, we had lunch with four young lads and Kay. Kay is a dear friend that we meet in Vegas at the finals. The young lads were all well behaved and their parents should be proud. One of the guys was a young and up and coming 15 year old bull rider, Samuel. The lunch went well, except for the fact that I launched my plate of pancakes and syrup into my lap and down my leg. Syrup on clothes, in the Tulsa muggy weather is not a good combination.

We headed back to the arena and went downstairs to the TeamPBR meet and greet area. JW Hart and Justin McKee were taping for a special recap that is going to be shown on Versus. While we were there JB Mauney came up and sat down and was interviewed. After a few minutes of being interviewed, JB stepped down and signed some autographs and took some pictures, but had to hurry to something else. One fan got on the directors chair next to Justin and pretended to talk to him and got a picture, that started the flood gate. Fan after fan, including Tammie got the chance to do the same, and have fun with it. Then the "fun" had to stop because Jody Newberry came to the seat to be interviewed. After Jody's interview, they shut it down and it was getting close to the start of the event.

We made our way to our seats after grabbing a drink and a snack. The usual (but yet still great) opening of the event and bull riding was about to start. One little rant here. If you are coming to your seats or getting up to get something to eat or go to the bathroom, please go in between rides, not during rides. Some people in the rows in front of us would get up and then everybody in the row has to stand up to let them by, when a ride is taking place. People, please have some consideration for others and do this between rides or better yet during the breaks between flights. There, that's my rant for the day. :)

The first two days belonged to the bulls, there were only 18 qualified rides. Will today be the same? In the first flight there were eight riders and only 2 rides. However, one of the rides was one of top scores for the event. Cody Nance scored a 90.00 on Lil' Red Kat. Also in the flight, Nathan Schapper scored a 79.50. Surprising buck offs were Jordan Hupp and Jody Newberry.

In the second flight, the tide turned for the riders. There were eight riders and four scores. Mike Lee 86.25, Cody Campbell 88.50, Dustin Elliott 87.50 and JB Mauney 84.25. On JB's ride, it looked pretty good for him, then he started to slide off around the 7 second mark, but was able to hang on for the 8. Shane Proctor was bucked off of Danger Zone in 2.5 seconds. He went 0 for 3 for the weekend and as I mentioned in the previous blog, was stomped on the night before.

In flight three, there were eight riders and only two scores. The tide went back to the bulls. However, again one of the best rides of the event in this flight. Renato Nunes, the current number one bull rider in the world, scored a 90.00 ride on Flirting with Disaster. This gave him a tie, with Cody Nance for the top score of the round. Also, Ross Coleman scored 85.75 on Evil Repeat. Ben Jones was on Bushwacker and only lasted 4.2 seconds. Actually, that is longer than many of the riders have stayed on him. Bushwacker is one serious bucking bull. McKennon Wimberly only lasted 2.3 seconds on Copp Hou. This was one of the most surprising, to me, early buck offs. Copp Hou is the bull the Kody Lostroh rode to a round win in the 2009 finals, when nobody knew anything about the bull.

In flight four, there were six riders ( Ned Cross was a scratch). Out of the six riders, there was only one ride. Silvano Alves (he sticks to bulls like white on rice) got an 84.75 score on The Grinch. Zack Brown, the event leader at the time, came down at the 3.0 mark on Power Line. Caleb Sanderson, who was on Hard Rock, looked good on his ride, but just couldn't quite make the whistle, coming down at 7.3. In flight five, the last flight before the short go, there were six riders and two scores. Valdiron de Oliveira got an 82.75 on Pro Bull Max and Kasey Hayes rode Pistolero for an 87.50. Pistol Robinson lasted 7.5 seconds on Congo, but you have to make 8 seconds to get a score. Close is not enough.

Going into the short go or the "Championship Round" the score of bulls and riders on this day was: Cowboys 11, Bulls 25. In the short go the bulls, with the exception of one ride, made the cowboys look like they were in the minor leagues. The only qualified ride of the short go was one of the most amazing rides I personally have seen. Not because of the score, but because of the effort put out by the rider. Renato Nunes was on Moebandy.com and the bull was all over the place and even fell at one point in the ride. It was amazing that Renato could even stay on the bull and the effort that was put out to stay on was rewarded with a score of 83.00 and a standing ovation from the crowd. The score propelled Renato to first place, with four riders to go. He was given a re ride option, but due to an injury (spurred himself in the buttocks, I feel like Forrest Gump every time I say buttocks), he declined. One by one the others riders came up and one by one they went down before the 8. Silvano Alves, who came into the short go in the number one position, came down at 3.3 on Flip Side and Renato Nunes was the winner of his third BFTS event in 2010. Renato stretched his overall lead in the standings and the only other rider, in the top ten, to make a move was Valdiron, moving from the eight spot to the fourth spot.

The final standings for the Tulsa event are: 1) Renato Nunes 259.75 2) Silvano Alves 258.75 3) Valdiron de Oliveira 252.75 4) Zack Brown 178.25 5) Cody Nance 176.75 6) Ross Coleman 171.75 7) Kasey Hayes 169.50 8) L.J. Jenkins 162.50 9) Cody Campbell 88.50 10/11) Harve Stewart 87.50 10/11) Dustin Elliott 87.50

After staying for about 30 minutes, so Tammie can get her rider autographs, we headed to dinner with sannpow and spouse and Twiggy and other half. We ate at the Cheescake Factory and I am telling you, they have great food and the prices are reasonable, for the amount of food you get. We ate, laughed, talked and planned our next BFTS event. I think we were there for about two hours and the other couples had to get on the road. Knowing that we got to Tulsa late on Friday and knowing we were going to stay up late on Saturday, we decided to stay on Sunday night and drive the five hours back home on Monday. So, back to the hotel and spend time on the computer and get to bed at a decent time. We are going to San Antonio for the next BFTS event and we will have our two adult kids with us, trying to convert both to become the PBR fanatics we have become.