Two-time Professional Bull Riders World Champion Chris Shivers rode Billionaire (Bailey Rodeo Company) for 87 points to win the Built Ford Tough Short Round on Friday and take the lead at Wells Fargo Arena, following the first day of action at the Built Ford Tough Series Des Moines Invitational. The Jonesboro, La., native has 174.75 points and sits 2.25 points ahead of Fabiano Vieira, who was the only other rider to ride two bulls on Friday.
In the short round, which features the Top 10 riders from Round 1, the first seven riders bucked off before Vieira rode Priceless (D&H Cattle Co./L&E Bulls) for 85.5 points to move into the overall lead. On the very next ride, Shivers moved into first with his effort on Billionaire. The last rider of the night was first-round leader Travis Briscoe, who bucked off Jeffrey Scott’s Titanium Tough (Jeff Robinson Bucking Bulls). Vieira, who is from Perola, Brazil, was second in the short round after finishing third in Round 1 with 87 points on Ludacris (Clark/Owen/Showsports).
Round 3 and the Built Ford Tough Championship Round will begin at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets are available at the Wells Fargo Arena box office, at all Dahl's Foods locations, at www.DahlsTickets.com, and by telephone at (866) 55-DAHLS.
It is the fifth round win of the season for Shivers, the most of any rider without an event win. He will be looking for his 23rd career win, and first since 2009, on Saturday. Despite having competed in only nine of 17 events in 2011, Shivers began the weekend ranked 19th in the BFTS season standings. He has five Top 10 finishes, including a third-place finish in Glendale, Ariz.
Briscoe, who won in Des Moines in 2009, is in third place with 88.5 points, followed by third-ranked L.J. Jenkins and Aaron Roy, who are tied for fourth with 86.25 points. Briscoe won Round 1 with 88.5 points on Bad Yeller (D&H Cattle Company), while Shivers was second with 87.75 points on PFI’s Boot Daddy (Gene Owen Bucking Bulls).
Fourth-ranked Austin Meier is in sixth place with 86 points and second-ranked Silvano Alves is in eighth place with 85 points. Top-ranked Valdiron de Oliveira and sixth-ranked Robson Palermo are tied for 12th with 83.75 points.
Each of the 40 riders will ride on Saturday. Following Round 2 on Saturday, the riders with the 10 highest cumulative scores from Friday and Saturday will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round where they will compete with one more bull. The overall event winner will be the rider with the highest combined score on four bulls.
The action from Des Moines, Iowa, will be televised in HD on VERSUS at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday and at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday. Play-by-play broadcaster Craig Hummer will be joined by PBR Ring of Honor member J.W. Hart, who will provide color commentary, and Erin Coscarelli, who will be doing dirt-level interviews. Built Ford Tough Series telecasts are produced for the PBR by David Neal Productions, a Los Angeles-based production company led by 30-time Emmy® Award winner and Peabody Award winner David Neal, who serves as executive producer and creative lead.
Des Moines is the 17th stop on the nationally-televised BFTS, which makes 28 stops in 23 states. The season began at world-famous Madison Square Garden in New York, and culminates Oct. 26-30 in Las Vegas at the richest bull riding event in the world, the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals. The Finals is where the 2011 PBR World Champion will be crowned and awarded the $1 million Built Ford Tough bonus.
Tweet Talk: PBR Dickies® DuraBullfighter Jesse Byrne will be answering your questions LIVE via Twitter at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. To participate, simply tweet your questions to @TeamPBR with the hash tag #PBRchat. Then, join the conversation at http://www.twitter.com/TeamPBR, as Jesse answers your questions live.
Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series
Friday’s Results from Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa
Event Leaders (Round 1-Built Ford Tough Short Round-Event Total Points)
- Chris Shivers, 87.75-87-174.75 points
- Fabiano Vieira, 87-85.5-172.5 points
- Travis Briscoe, 88.5-0-88.5 points
- (tie) L.J. Jenkins, 86.25-0-86.25 points
(tie) Aaron Roy, 86.25-0-86.25 points - Austin Meier, 86-0-86 points
- Douglas Duncan, 85.75-0-85.75 points
- Silvano Alves, 85-0-85 points
- Ryan McConnel, 84.75-0-84.75 points
- David Kennedy, 84.25-0-84.25 points
- Guytin Tsosie, 84-dnq-84 points
- (tie) Valdiron de Oliveira, 83.75-dnq-83.75 points
(tie) Robson Palermo, 83.75-dnq-83.75 points - Colby Yates, 82-dnq-82 points
- Paulo Lima, 79.25-dnq-79.25 points
- Douglas Ferreira, 78-dnq-78 points
- Elton Cide, 76-dnq-76 points
Elliott Jacoby, 0-dnq-0 points
Stormy Wing, 0-dnq-0 points
J.B. Mauney, 0-dnq-0 points
Cody Nance, 0-dnq-0 points
Reese Cates, 0-dnq-0 points
Pistol Robinson, 0-dnq-0 points
Pete Farley, 0-dnq-0 points
Caleb Sanderson, 0-dnq-0 points
Skeeter Kingsolver, 0-dnq-0 points
Luke Snyder, 0-dnq-0 points
Dustin Elliott, 0-dnq-0 points
Mike Lee, 0-dnq-0 points
Travis Sellers, 0-dnq-0 points
Guilherme Marchi, 0-dnq-0 points
Dusty Ephrom, 0-dnq-0 points
Kody Lostroh, 0-dnq-0 points
Shane Proctor, 0-dnq-0 points
Brant Atwood, 0-dnq-0 points
Jordan Hupp, 0-dnq-0 points
Ben Jones, 0-dnq-0 points
Sean Willingham, 0-dnq-0 points
Jory Markiss, 0-dnq-0 points
Tony Mendes, 0-dnq-0 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.
