Dustin Elliott rode the first bull of the 2010 Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough World Finals for 89.25 points in front of 9,127 fans at the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday.

The North Platte, Neb., bull rider then waited as 52 of the world’s best riders were unable to better his score on Hee Bee Gee Bee (Boyd/Floyd Bull Company), giving him the Round 1 win.

Renato Nunes of Buritama, Brazil, finished second in Round 1 with 89 points on Pit Boss (Ace of Spades Ranch), and earned 449 points in the Built Ford Tough Series standings. Nunes is 610.5 points behind J.B. Mauney of Mooresville, N.C. and 937.25 points behind leader Austin Meier of Kinta, Okla., who rode RMEF Elk Country (Jeff Robinson Bucking Bulls) for 85.5 points on Wednesday.

Round 1 was the American Bucking Bull Classic Long Go competition, featuring the Top 40 3- and 4-year-old bulls from the regular season and the top four bulls from the ABBI Wild Card event. Up to 20 can advance to the ABBI Classic Short Go which will be held in conjunction with Round 4 on Saturday. The bull with the highest score after two rounds will be the winner of the 2010 ABBI World Champion Classic title and $250,000.

Round 2 will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday and tickets are still available at the Thomas & Mack Center box office, online at www.unlvtickets.com and by telephone at 866-PBR-SHOW. The Finals are televised on VERSUS at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and on NBC at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday.

For more information on the 2010 World Finals, please visit www.pbr.com.

The 2010 PBR World Champion will be the rider with the most Built Ford Tough Series points accumulated during the regular season and the World Finals. There are a potential 5,000 points remaining at the World Finals, so any one of the Top 10 riders still has the opportunity to win the title.

The Finals consist of six rounds of competition. The first five rounds feature all of the riders matched against the toughest bulls. The scores from the five rides will be combined, and the Top 15 riders will advance for an additional round of competition, following the completion of Round 5 on Sunday, Oct. 24.

2010 Built Ford Tough World Finals
Round 1, Oct. 20 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas

1. Dustin Elliott, North Platte, Neb., 89.25 points on Hee Bee Gee Bee (Boyd/Floyd Bull Company)
2. Renato Nunes, Buritama, Brazil, 89 points on Pit Boss (Ace of Spades Ranch)
3. Beau Hill, West Glacier, Mont., 88.75 points on Flirting with Disaster (Hart Cattle Co/Switchouse Ranch/Plummer)
4. Douglas Duncan, Alvin, Texas, 88.5 points on Copp Hou (Lightning C Cattle Company)
5. Pete Farley, 88.25 points on Wish This (Don Kish Bucking Bulls)

2010 World Standings

1. Austin Meier, Kinta, Okla., 10,976.25 points
2. J.B. Mauney, Mooresville, N.C., 10,650.5 points
3. Renato Nunes, Buritama, Brazil, 10,040 points

About the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR)
The PBR is the world’s premier bull riding organization. More than 100 million viewers annually watch over 400 hours of primetime PBR programming on VERSUS, NBC, CBS and networks around the world. The PBR has awarded over $100 million in prize money, and 20 riders have earned over $1 million, including Justin McBride with $5.5 million – the most of any western-sports athlete in history. The PBR was nominated as 2010 Sports League of the Year at the Sports Business Journal Sports Business Awards, alongside the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. Nearly 2 million fans attend Built Ford Tough Series and Touring Pro Division events each year. For more information on the PBR, go to www.pbr.com, or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamPBR and http://twitter.com/TEAMPBR.