The Caterpillar Classic Closes In Excitement While Crowning An Event Champion

Last night, the fans inside of the Sprint Center had the chance to watch some of the best up and coming two and three-year-old bucking bulls compete as round one featured those bovine athletes from the American Bucking Bull Incorporated (ABBI) organization.  Many of those that made an appearance are offsprings of some of the legends that we have had the pleasure of watching throughout the years prior.  All of those competing not only received a bull score from the PBR arena judges, but they were also in their own battle for the top bucking bull of the year in the ABBI standings.  One of those bulls, Sky Harbor, would continue to be the early standout after earning a very solid 44.50 bull score after bucking off Wallace Vieira de Oliveira early, giving him the top bull score of the round.

Although the focus would be on the ABBI Classic bulls last night, there was also some drama that would include a few of the Professional Bull Riders 25th Anniversary Monster Energy Unleash The Beast Tour here in Kansas City.  Coming into round one, we would all be shocked to come to the realization that three of the top five bull riders in the 2018 world standings would be missing the event due to injury.  Cooper Davis, Jess Lockwood and Ryan Dirteater would all miss this weekend’s event, but that was not all as another top contestant would miss round one for a different reason.  Fan favorite Derek Kolbaba would miss the performance as well due to travel difficulties but would still be eligible to compete here in round two later tonight.  All that being said, with only twelve riders making the whistle last night, today’s action should be fun to watch as we look towards the championship round later tonight!

Image result for jose vitor leme rides Kansas City

Jose Vitor Leme Picks Up The Round Two Win Here In Kansas City

Photo Credit: Rokin’ K Photos / Jeana Wilson-Kilcrease

Coming into this afternoon’s second round of competition, the door would still be wide open for anyone to be able to make it back to the championship round later in the day with a solid ride since open spots still needed to be filled.  Last night, twelve riders would make the whistle which would leave three open spots to fill out the full round schedule and every one of the cowboys here this afternoon knew what that meant.  Counting on producing what things should look like throughout the round on paper, the bull riders came in hoping they could follow suit and continue the trend of keeping their weekend dreams alive.  Looking at the pairings for this afternoon, many of them could potentially bring huge numbers and carry them over into that championship round they are all focusing on here this afternoon.

As the action began earlier today on Sunday afternoon, things would kick off with a bang but quickly slow down following a qualified ride at the first crack of the latch but would be few and far between until later in the round.  Once the round reached the midway point things began to heat up again and would continue that trend throughout the rest of the afternoon as we all waited to see who would reach the Championship Round later in the day.  After all was said and done, what things were looking like on paper is exactly what happened down on the arena floor as a whopping fifteen qualified rides were made, many of them for big scores that would carry over into the following round.  After all the excitement, it would be the 2017 PBR Rookie of the Year Jose Vitor Leme who would earn another round win with a huge 88.75 point bull ride aboard Dakota Rodeo – Chad Berger / Clay Struve / Ken Barnhard’s bull Pile Driver that would be the crowd to their feet late in the round!

Complete Qualified Ride List For Round Two In Kansas City:

Jose Vitor Leme (88.75)                                                Derek Kolbaba (87.25)

Marco Eguchi (87.00)                                                    Cody Nance (86.50)

Stetson Lawrence (86.50)                                             Dakota Buttar (86.25)

Emilio Resende (86.25)                                                 Valdiron de Oliveira (84.25)

Claudio Montanha Jr. (84.25)                                     Eduardo Aparecido (84.00)

Cody Teel (84.00)                                                          Guilherme Marchi (83.75)

Cody Campbell (83.50)                                                 Ramon de Lima (82.75)

Edgar Durazo (80.50)

Dener Barbosa Continues His Dominance In The Championship Round

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

After all of the hustle and bustle of the first two rounds were completed, it was time to turn our attention to the final round that would determine who would walk out of Kansas City with the Caterpillar Classic Championship Round win.  Although the top fifteen contestants from the weekend were ready to try their fate at taming their bovine opponents, that task would be almost an overwhelming task as many of the top contenders for Bull of the Year title would stand in their way.  That being said, nothing could be done without the daunting task of walking across the shark cage, either with excitement or dismay, to pick who their match-ups would be.  No matter how they would walk across, they would have to put their money where their mouth was once the championship round was set to commence.

Once the final round began, it was quickly made evident that the bovine athletes came to play and would have their way with a majority of those cowboys standing in their way of impressing the judges and the PBR Director of Livestock, Cody Lambert.  One by one, each and every cowboy would fall to the wayside with only three of the fifteen able to figure out how to make it to the elusive eight-second buzzer on Sunday afternoon.  Even though three were able to earn qualified rides, the scores that would be posted on the board showed signs that those rides were barely made and that the cowboys would have troubles. The current world leader Dener Barbosa would be good enough to outperform the other two to bring home the Championship Round win with a moderate 85.75 score aboard Broken Arrow Bucking Bulls’ Breaking Bad.

Guilherme Marchi Celebrates His Caterpillar Classic Event Win

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

While the Championship Round was pretty uneventful, the overall event here in Kansas City this year was another great tour stop on the PBR 25th Anniversary Monster Energy Unleash The Beast Tour.  This weekend, the fans watching the event live were able to see many thrills and spills as well as some major moves within the current world standings with Marco Eguchi coming from below the cut line to above it with two great rounds in the last two days.  As most of us know, things can change quickly and any one of those that are above the line are not exempt from big changes that could affect the rest of their 2018 PBR seasons.  Not only were big moves made but many would regain the confidence they had been searching for the last few weeks and head into next weekend feeling the best they have early on.

Before we could look ahead to next weekend’s event in St. Louis there was still some unfinished business to attend to here in Kansas City.  Two days of fierce professional bull riding action was concluded but the fans inside of the Sprint Center would not leave without cheering on one of their all-time favorite bull riders following his dominating performance to win the overall event title.  This weekend that would be Brazilian Guilherme Marchi, who would be the only man to achieve the 3-for-3 status while riding for 253.75 points, blowing away the rest of the field and earning 475 world title race points bringing him to the number seven spot.  Along with the points would come a cool $35,000 for the event win which will surely buy enough diapers for his new child to have use of over the next couple of years!

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