CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (September 25, 2010) - Brendon Clark celebrated his 30th birthday on Friday night by splitting the win in the opening round of the Charlottesville Invitational with Kody Lostroh and Cody Nance.
With his Australian family living on the other side of the international dateline, Clark joked, “I have two birthdays.”
Tonight at the John Paul Jones Arena, the recently engaged Clark is hoping to extend that celebration to a third day, when the 28th of 30 Built Ford Tough Series events concludes with the final two rounds of competition.
“When I left home (Thursday) night, Ali (Renz) said to me, ‘I think this is your weekend,’” recalled Clark, who lives in California.
“I knew I had a good bull and I had actually only seen about two jumps of him before. Skeeter (Kingsolver) got a re-ride on him a couple weeks ago, but I knew the bull was going to buck. You just knew he was going to buck.”
Clark was second man out of the chutes Friday. Lostroh was first up with Outa Da Blue, and Clark was in complete control through his 8 seconds on Boone & Crockett. Both men earned 87.5 points.
“I heard some things about him,” Clark added, “he was real mean and had huge big horns.”
About midway through the ride, Clark applied a lesson he learned from PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert, who just last week suggested that Clark start attacking once he “feels comfortable.”
The advice came in Springfield, Mo., when the two talked about Clark’s recent trouble with his hand popping out of his rope.
His aggressive approach with Boone & Crockett gave him a full two points more than the bull score of 42.75 points. Clark hopes to capitalize on his first-round fortunes with his second-round draw of Ramble On.
“I’ve got to stay on two more bulls is what I have to do,” Clark said. “I’ve given myself the opportunity so many times … and it just hasn’t worked out, and eventually it’s going to. I keep telling myself that and I’m not really worried about it.
“I’m doing the best I can on every single bull.”
A short-round appearance would be Clark’s fourth in the past five BFTS events. He has had two Top 10 finishes in 2010 and is looking to make it three in Charlottesville.
His best finish came in San Antonio where finished seventh.
Clark’s split came on a night when 19 of 40 riders made the whistle – the most qualified rides since of the opening round of the event in Ontario, Calif., and the second most since the BFTS resumed after the two-month summer break.
“That was some icing on the cake for (Friday),” he added, “that’s for sure.”
NEWS AND NOTES
Live Event Center: Follow all the action from this week’s BFTS event in Charlottesville, Va., by logging on to the Event Center at www.pbr.com/live. The multimedia center provides live scoring, live photos, live blogging and event-related interviews.
