COLUMBUS, Ohio (October 9, 2010) - Just last week, J.B. Mauney proclaimed, “I’m only looking up at one guy.”
That was after the first round of the Mohegan Sun Invitational, when he went from 64 to 106.5 points behind No. 1 Austin Meier in the world standings. By the time he left Uncasville, Conn., he trailed Meier by 706.75 points.
The 23-year-old Mauney, who has twice finished second in the standings, is still only looking up at one rider, but with just 10 possible bulls left before the crowning of the 2010 World Champion, he can ill afford to fall further back.
“I’d rather be there,” said Mauney, who is the only Top 3 contender who knows what it’s like to be close to a title this late in the season.
Meier has never finished in the Top 5, and in four previous seasons, his best finish was last year, when he came in sixth.Renato Nunes, who is third in the standings and trails Meier by 1,309.5 points, has one Top 5 finish in four previous seasons.
There are a maximum of 900 points available this weekend at the last regular-season Built Ford Tough Series event of the year. Those points, when combined with a possible 300 points next weekend at the last Final Five Showdown in New York, and the 5,500 points up for grabs in Las Vegas, leave a possible 6,700 points to be claimed.
While 20 riders have yet to be mathematically eliminated from contention, Valdiron de Oliveira, who is fourth in the standings and 2,275.5 points off the lead, is considered the only real outside contender.
For Oliveira to take the lead in the standings, he would have to score a third of his total season points on 10 bulls. He needed 81 bulls to score the other two-thirds.
“Austin isn’t going to turn loose,” said Mauney.
Last year, Mauney went into the Finals trailing Kody Lostroh by 785 points. Despite becoming the first and only rider to cover all eight bulls in Las Vegas, he still finished second in the world standings. This year, the Finals have been shortened by two rounds, which is 1,000 less points than previous years.
Mauney’s only recourse is to resort to the “loose and cool” style that established him as one of the top-ranked riders in the world.
How will he accomplish this year what he wasn’t able to do in 2009?
“I’m going to try and be 90 every time,” he said.
NEWS AND NOTES
Live Event Center: Follow all the action from this week’s BFTS event in Columbus, Ohio, 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.
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