PUEBLO, Colo. – Jess Lockwood made history in 2019 by becoming the sixth rider in PBR history to win multiple World Championships.
The 22-year-old is also the youngest rider to ever win two or more gold buckles, and his 5-for-6 showing at the 2019 PBR World Finals also made him one of five riders to win the World Championship and World Finals event title in the same season.
Every ride and every world point matters during a World Championship season, and Lockwood is just the latest example of that.
Here are the Advanced Auto Parts Keys to Victory for Lockwood during his 2019 World Championship journey.
Lockwood believed he essentially had to win the event average at the World Finals to have a chance at winning the World Championship.
He entered Round 1 trailing Jose Vitor Leme by 749.66 points in the world standings.
Prior to Lockwood winning the 2019 World Championship, no rider had ever overcome more than a 467.5-point deficit in the current points system, which Lockwood did in 2017.
Leme is a fierce competitor and Lockwood believed he would certainly not hit the dirt much at all.
That mindset proved true, with Leme going 4-for-6 and finishing fourth in the event average (300 world points).
The World Finals event average winner earns 1,500 world points and second-place is worth 720 – which is a difference of 780 points.
Leme (4-for-6) would have been the World Champion if Lockwood bucked off any of his bulls in Rounds 2-5 and finished second in the event average to Matt Triplett.
Lockwood would still have been the World Champion – by a mere 37.5 points – if he bucked off Silver Back in Round 1 and finished second in the event average, as he only earned 35 world points for placing seventh in that round.
Lockwood had almost zero room for error, and he made sure to be close to perfect to pull off the stunning comeback by picking up 2,265 points toward the world standings and not bucking off a single bull until the championship was his.
The Volborg, Montana, bull rider concluded the season 852.51 points ahead of Leme.
LEME’S SLAP OPENED DOOR FOR LOCKWOOD
World No. 2 Jose Vitor Leme will likely lose sleep over his 1.9-second slap aboard Danny Boy in Round 2. If Leme’s free hand did not get caught out of position leaving the chutes, he was easily going to ride Danny Boy and remain in contention for the World Finals event average.
Instead, Leme needed a 94.75-point ride or higher in Round 5 aboard Lil 2 Train to tie Lockwood in the event average and win the world title, which was still going to be colossal task to pull off.
Lil 2 Train, though, downed Leme in 4.59 seconds to cement Lockwood his second World Championship in four years.
LOCKWOOD FINISHES WITH PBR-RECORD AVERAGE RIDE SCORE & SETS CAREER HIGHS
Lockwood concluded 2019 with career highs in qualified rides (44), attempts (65), riding percentage (67.69%), 90-point rides (14), 15/15 Bucking Battle wins (4), event wins (5) and round wins (14) on the premier series.
Lockwood competed in 18 premier series events, missing nine because of a broken collarbone, and failed to record world points in only three events all season.
One of the most eye-popping stats was Lockwood’s average ride score of 88.52 points. It is the highest average ride score for a World Champion in PBR history, breaking the previous record of 87.79 held by Chris Shivers (2003).
Lockwood’s average ride score not only helped him win events and rounds, but it also helped him continuously place high in rounds for bonus points toward the world standings.
Lockwood placed in the Top 5 of a round 77.27% of the time when he reached the 8 second-mark, and finished in the Top 3 of a round 61.36% of the time.
That kind of high-scoring ability helped Lockwood average 311.62 world points per UTB regular-season event he competed at.
Also noteworthy: Lockwood’s 67.69% riding percentage is the highest by a World Champion since Silvano Alves rode 69% in 2011.
NON-UTB SUMMER RUN WAS DIFFERENCE MAKER
The summer Unleash The Beast break turned out to be anything but a rest for Lockwood.
Lockwood went 25-for-36 on the Touring Pro Division and at PBR Canada events once he returned to competition from that broken collarbone on May 3. He earned 782.5 points toward the world standings and won six events.
Lockwood’s total of TPD, PBR Canada and Velocity Tour world points for the entire season was 932.5 points. If he competed only on the Unleash The Beast and did not have those extra points, Leme would have won the world title by 79.99 points.
PBR MAJORS PROVE FRUITFUL FOR ASPIRING WORLD CHAMPS
The past four World Champions have all won a PBR Major on their way to the world title. Winning a Major has become close to essential for a rider unless you can continuously win rounds like J.B. Mauney did in 2015 and Leme did this season.
Lockwood began the season with a PBR Major victory at the season-opening Monster Energy Buck Off at the Garden in New York City and seemed poised to never look back. He would win again the following week in Chicago before Joao Ricardo Vieira rattled off back-to-back victories.
The 967.5-point lead Lockwood had atop the world standings proved beneficial when he broke his collarbone at the 2019 WinStar World Casino & Resort Global Cup USA, presented by Monster Energy, on Feb. 9.
The injury sent Lockwood to the sidelines for three months, letting Vieira, Chase Outlaw and Leme establish themselves as World Champion contenders.
Lockwood earned 895 world points in New York, which is the second-most world points he earned at one event in 2019 behind his 2,265 at the World Finals.
SEE LOCKWOOD BEGIN HIS PURSUIT OF A THIRD WORLD TITLE IN PERSON
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