TULSA, Okla. (July 14, 2010) - Summer doesn’t officially end until September 22.
But for the best professional bull riders in the world, the summer break from the Built Ford Tough Series will end Friday night in Tulsa, Okla., when the Top 40 compete in Round 1 of the Express Classic.
They have just 10 events before the 2010 PBR World Finals in October to ascend the standings. On Sunday, Oct. 24, the PBR will crown a World Champion for the 17th time.
Currently, Renato Nunes is the No. 1 rider in the world. Through the first 20 events in the season, the 29-year-old Brazilian has accumulated 7,782.5 points (660.75 more than No. 2 Austin Meier), and his riding average of 63.5 percent is just two points under Guilherme Marchi’s.
Nunes has earned 7,782.5 of the 19,600 points available to him at this juncture in the season – about 39.7 percent of the total points he’d have earned were he having a hypothetically perfect run.
For the rest of the season, there are 16,500 points available, including 9,500 maximum points at BFTS events, another 1,500 points from the Final Five Chase, and 5,500 at the Finals. This year’s Finals is two rounds shorter than a year ago, which is a difference of 1,000 points. But the Chase, which is new this year, more than makes up the difference.
Using Nunes’ 39.7 percent accumulation rate as a benchmark, virtually everyone outside of the Top 34 has been eliminated from title contention. Brian Canter, for example, who is returning to the BFTS after missing the past 10 events, would need the Top 10 to go scoreless and everyone from Skeeter Kingsolver (11) down to Billy Robinson (33) to cut their productivity in half.
In just the Top 10, if Nunes remained consistent with his first half numbers, McKennon Wimberly (10) would likely need to score 9,423 points to catch him. That would be 57.1 percent of the maximum points available, or in other words, Wimberly would have to score points at a rate 18.4 percent higher than Nunes.
Wimberly is already having a career year by covering 6.5 percent more of his bulls (49.1 percent) than his career average, but would need to cover in the neighborhood of 70 percent from now until the sixth and final round of the Finals to take the crown.
Valdiron de Oliveira, who trails Nunes by 2,218.5 points, moved in the No. 8 spot while competing in only 15 of 20 events, and has covered 65.3 percent of his bulls. But Nunes has averaged 389.13 points per event to Oliveira’s 370.93.
The Finals are three months away, but with just 10 regular-season events left, points are clearly of the essence.
NEWS and NOTES
An online first: This weekend, for the first time in PBR history, each day of a regular-season BFTS event will be covered live online.
All three days of action from the Express Classic in Tulsa, Okla., will be available live at www.pbr.tv and www.versus.com. Fans who can’t catch the live event will be able to watch the event later on demand at pbr.tv.
Online coverage will feature the live in-arena feed from the event, including every ride as called by announcers Brandon Bates and Clint Adkins, along with comedy stylings of Flint Rasmussen and other live event activities as they happen.
TV coverage of Tulsa on Versus: Versus will be airing a special one-hour show on Friday, July 30 at 9 p.m. ET, and re-airing it on Saturday, July 31 at 8 p.m. ET. The show will feature the best action from Tulsa along with a review of the season and a look ahead to the rest of the year.
PBR Mailbag: Have a question? Beginning this weekend, www.pbr.com will debut a weekly “mailbag” giving you the answers. Email your questions to mailbag@pbrnow.com.
