CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (September 25, 2010) - While Brendon Clark was readying himself in the chute, PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert leaned in close and told him that he had to stay on RMEF Bugle.
“He said, ‘You have no other option, or you’re going to look like an idiot,’” recalled Clark, who rode Bugle for 89.25 points and his first Built Ford Tough Series event win since 2007, “‘And if you ride this one, you’ll make me look like an idiot.’”
Lambert, who is a firm believer in accepting all re-ride options, was referring to Clark’s decision in Round 2 to keep the 72.25 points he earned when he rode Ramble On.
Afterward, Clark said his riding hand had been bothering him, and he had no choice. But he did admit that he thought he “might have let one slip” by not accepting a re-ride. Had it not been for his sore hand and guaranteed spot in the short round, he said he would have gotten on another bull.
“I didn’t take my re-ride on my second bull, because my hand’s been hurting, and that bull kind of jerked me around pretty good,” Clark said.
He later added, “I was going to have to live with it. There was no other option. I don’t like going into the game like that, and I don’t like not taking the re-ride, but physically, I had to accept that.”
Listen to the full post-event interview with Clark here.
Clark, who split the opening round win with Kody Lostroh and Cody Nance, said that although he made the whistle in Round 2, his hand had been giving him trouble, and he didn’t want to risk hurting it any more than it already was before the final round.
With only five qualified rides in Round 2 – a season low for any long round – Clark was only one of four riders who were 2-for-2 going into the bull draft. With the fourth pick, Clark selected Bugle.
While Clark was in the arena participating in the bull draft, Luke Snyder was in the locker room with Clark’s bull rope.
“He said, ‘I’m going to go make this thing sticky,’” Clark recalled. “He said, ‘It’s going to hang on to you in the short round.’”
There had been four qualified rides before Clark, and four lead changes in the event average with Lostroh, the reigning World Champion, in the lead when Clark finally nodded his head.
The 30-year-old admitted that on the second or third jump his hand came loose, but thanks to Snyder’s work during the intermission, it didn’t come out as it had in past weeks.
“It’s lucky to have friends like that – who help you to win,” Clark said. “He had it really, really sticky, and that’s the only thing that kept me on there.”
Given that his last BFTS event win came in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2007, Clark said, “I didn’t know where to stand on the shark cage, and I didn’t know where to go for interviews.
“But, I tell you what, it’s pretty nice to be able to do them for once. That’s for sure.”
Clark (248.5) beat out Lostroh (176.75), Ben Jones (176), Valdiron de Oliveira (174) and Silvano Alves (173.5) for the third event win of his eight-year career on the BFTS.
