PBR Memphis - Event Review, Part II

The second day of the PBR event in Memphis started out with a nice tone from the alarm. When I went to turn it off, it was hard to believe that it was time to get up. After getting to bed at 3 am, all my body could say was, your getting to old for this and go ahead and sleep. Well, my body lost out to my heart. At every Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) event we have been to, we have attended cowboy church. It has been a blessing every time and I was not going to miss it this time.

We made our way over to the arena just before the starting time at 11:00 am. Todd Pierce, the regular pastor of Riding High Ministries was not available, and Jody Newberry, a PBR rider, was going to speak at the service. During the service we got to hear from a Russian citizen who is a born again Christian and he shared his testimony. It was inspiring. He talked about the fact that when he was in Russia he started his journey to salvation with an American dollar. He was given an American dollar by someone and he noticed on the dollar "In God We Trust". On their money was Lenin and that is who they trust. Later he was given a book that had the gospel of John and started to read it. At some point he was robbed and beaten and lay in the snow dying. He was rescued and the doctors said that the snow slowed his death and if it would have been 30 minutes later, he would have died. He was taken to his mothers house and as he recovered, all he could talk about is following Jesus and not following the communist government. His family wanted to commit him to a mental institution, because they thought the beating had affected his brain. Later he would go to the streets and preach the gospel and soon would be arrested and put in prison for speaking out about his beliefs. He stayed in prison for two years, just for proclaiming his faith. The Soviet Union fell and he was pardoned by Gorbachev himself. He went on to write a song and play about Jesus and started a mega church in Russia. He said that today Russia is starting to revert back to some of their old ways and religious freedom is not as free as it has been. The main point of this man's message was, "thank you America" for being there in Russia and making the effort to bring the gospel to Russia and other places. He went on say that he sees America getting tired and he wants to prop America up and encourage America to continue the effort that we have had in the past to spread God's word. Again, a very inspiring message.

After the service we went to lunch with some of our PBR buddies and some of the production crew. We ate at a well known BBQ restaurant. The food was good, but a little over priced and the only sides were beans and slaw. Really wished they had fries or some kind of potato. The conversation at the table was great and I got the opportunity to get to ask some questions of the guys in the production crew and just get to know them a little better. There was a signing at Pro Bass shop that we missed, because of the lunch, but the great company was well worth it.

We made our way back to the hotel, spent time on the computer and took a short nap. Since we were helping out with TeamPBR again, and we had to be at the arena so early, there wasn't a whole lot of down time. We headed to the arena, parked in the "special parking" and into the arena. It is kind of neat to get to the arena, before anybody is there and get on the dirt and just soak in the atmosphere of the arena and just imagine the crowd, bulls, riders and noise. We worked the front entrance again and the meet and greet areas as well. This night, the Brazilians came out to sign autographs and take pictures. They are all nice and I talked to Valdiron and joked about him letting Renato beat him in the standings. He laughed and said that he will beat him by the end of the season.

We finished up and before I made my way to our seats, I made a quick stop to the seats of one of the PBR fans that comment on the PBR website, Louisiana Fan (using the PBR sign on). I met and talked to her and her husband and their grandson. It was a good conversation and even though she is a fan of the wrong rider (lol), I think outside of the comment section, we could be friends for sure.



Before I get to the event, I wanted to give a shout out to the PBR bull fighters. They do a great job of protecting the riders and at the first sign of trouble, they quickly move in and do their job. They literally put their bodies and potentially their lives on the line for these riders and I don't think they get enough credit.

Today's event was broke up into 5 flights (sections) and the short go. In the first flight, there were a number of buck offs, with Cord McCoy and Robson Palermo coming off the quickest. Shane Proctor had the best ride of the long go for the night. He scored an 89.00 on Maverick and it was a great ride. Ryan McConnel scored an 87.00 on Raisin Cane and Guilherme Marchi got the best of Updraft and rode him for the 8 and scoring 84.25. It was good to see Marchi get the ride as he has been struggling lately with a sore riding hand. The bull was difficult as it was out of line for most of the ride and it was surprising that Marchi was able to hang in there.

In flight two, Caleb Sanderson came off on Moon in 1.4 seconds. Ednei Caminhas looked good on his ride and like he had the ride made, but just fell short at 7.0 seconds. Valdiron toughed it out on his bull, Black Hawk, and scored an 86.25. Harve Stewart and Ned Cross got scores of 85.75 and 83.75. In flight three, Cody Campbell scored an 88.00 on Hot Rod. The 88.00 matched his 88.00 from the night before and put him into first place for the two day total and he would go into first place in the short go. It is good to see Cody stepping it up as he trys to win some more money and make it to the finals. Speaking of stepping it up, Austin has been doing just that lately. He rode Stubby for an 86.25, which gave him two scores heading into the short go. Mike Lee also got a qualified ride with an 85.50 on Flashpoint.

In flight four, Jared Farley had Hee Bee Gee Bee. He got about as close as he could to the 8 seconds, without making the 8. When he came off, the clock stopped at 7.9 seconds. Jared challenged the time. When the replay judge showed the time, Jared lost some. The replay judge showed 7.75 seconds and Jared's day was done. Chris Shivers was in the chute on Boomer Sooner and the bull was acting up. Chris was not able to get out on the bull and they gave him a reride on Deja Blu. He was not able to make good on the opportunity and did not get a score. The only score in this flight was Renato Nunes, scoring an 80.75. He got out of position and some how was able to hang on for the last 3 seconds. His score wasn't pretty, but he became only the third rider to get two bulls rode. Flight five saw two rides completed. JB Mauney rode Very Smart Remedy for an 87.75 and Silvano Alves finished off Hank for a low score of 81.25. Silvano became only the fourth rider to get two scores going into the short go. Jordan Hupp, surprisingly, was the fastest rider off in this round when he was bucked off Flip Side in just 2.3 seconds.

Short Go - This was one of, if not the rankest bull pens that has ever been in a short go. I looked at the list and there were at last 9 bulls that I can say that nobody would want to ride. I can't believe Cody Nance picked Bushwacker. I know Cody and he is fearless. He will pick any bull, any time. With that said, you have to be smart about certain bulls. Bushwacker has dumped his riders off on average in less than 3 seconds. This was no exception. Cody was bucked off in 2.1 seconds and Bushwacker scored a 47.00 bull score. I have seen this bull a number of times, in person, and every time all I can say is, WOW!! Jordan Hupp was the first to get a score in the short go. He scored an 88.25 on Kabookie. I was surprised that Kabookie lasted that long in the draft for Jordan to pick him. One by one they came up and one by one they went down. JB rode Code Blue for an 89.50. It was a great ride but Code Blue was/is not the same Code Blue that won Bucking Bull of the Year last year. The bull was over weight, slow and did not buck very high or spin much. Not taking anything away from JB, the bull score was 44 and I don't think that it should have been that high. After JB got off the bull, Code Blue's back legs gave out, twice and he had a hard time getting out of the arena. At this time it has been said that Code Blue had a pinched nerve and may or may not buck again. Silvano Alves rode Chance for an 85.25. Chance had an unusually bad out, but with Silvano getting a score, it vaulted him into first place in the event, being the first rider to get three bull scores. Renato came up and only lasted 4.2 seconds on Voodoo Child. Austin's turn. However, he went flying off Unabomber in just 3.2 seconds. Cody Campbell, the leader of the event going into the short go picked Black Pearl. This turned out not to be Cody's day to win his first BFTS event as he was bucked off in 3.3 seconds. The winner of the Memphis PBR event was Silvano Alves with a total score of 253.50.

The final standings for the Memphis BFTS event are: 1) Silvano Alves 253.50 2) JB Mauney 177.25 3) Cody Campbell 176.00 4) Jordan Hupp 174.75 5) Austin Meier 173.25 6) Reanto Nunes 168.50 7) Shane Proctor 89.00 8) Cody Nance 88.25 9) Colby Yates 87.75 10) Ryan McConnel 87.00

The event was over, and it seems it just got started. Since the previous night the riders could not come out to sign autographs because of the concert, they did come out this night. Tammie was able to get her pictures signed and we talked to several riders. JB was the last rider to come out and as he made his way around we had the opportunity to talk with him for a few minutes about Code Blue. He gave us his impression about Code Blue's injury and as he stated, if it were him, he would not have brought Code Blue there and would not have bucked him the rest of the year.

We made our way out of the arena and man was it hot and muggy. After driving around with our PBR buddies in tow, trying to find a restaurant open at midnight. We finally decided to just eat at the same Iron Skillet that we ate at the night before. We had our same waitress, April, and surprisingly, she remembered all of our drink orders, all six of them. It was not surprising that she remembered us, since we were a little loud the night before from laughing, but to remember the drink orders, she's good. Near the end of our meal, lightning filled the skys. We all kept looking and thinking we need to walk on back to the hotel before it rains, but we didn't. Then the sky's opened up and the rains came down heavy. Ok, that just meant that we had to stay there and just continue the fun conversation and getting a good nights sleep before the trip home was not going to happen. I think by the time we got back to the hotel and finally went to bed, it was after 3 am. It makes for a fun time with friends, but the eyes and body suffer. With that said, it's worth it.