PUEBLO, Colo. – 2020 PBR World Champion Jose Vitor Leme may have only gotten to know the late Mason Lowe for a little more than a year, but he still remembers the smile Lowe brought to the locker room and his always jovial personality.
“Mason was a really good guy, fun guy, and it was hard to lose him,” Leme recalled during the 2020 PBR World Finals. “It is hard to lose anybody, but it is hard to lose someone that lives our passion with us, goes to events together and you stay with every weekend. It is not easy.”
Leme won the 2020 Mason Lowe Memorial Award, which is given to the rider with the highest-marked ride of the regular season, and, coincidentally, he won Lowe’s namesake award by riding the same bull on which Lowe made the best ride of his career – Smooth Operator.
Three years ago, Lowe became only the second rider in five years (at the time) to conquer the now two-time YETI World Champion Bull when he rode the bovine superstar to win the $26,000 Ride Score Championship at Iron Cowboy.
Leme joined Lowe in the record books two years later when he rode Smooth Operator for 92.5 points to win the Columbus, Ohio, 15/15 Bucking Battle. Leme made magic again this year by becoming only the sixth rider in 117 outs to ride Smooth Operator when he rode the Chad Berger bucking bull to win the 15/15 Bucking Battle in Billings, Montana, on Sept. 12.
“I think Smooth Operator likes me,” Leme said with a laugh. “I get on him three times, but I rode him just two. He bucked me off one day. He is a pretty hard bull, and he was not easy away from my hand, but I was lucky he come two times into my hand. It is amazing when you ride a World Champion Bull. It is great for me and my career. I will keep this memory for my entire life, too.”
Leme and Lowe are two of six men to reach the 8-second mark on Smooth Operator in 117 outs at all levels of competition.
Lowe passed away on January 15, 2019, as a result of injuries sustained in competition when Hard Times bucked him off and stepped on his chest at the Denver PBR Chute Out Velocity Tour event inside the Denver Coliseum.
PBR Commissioner and CEO Sean Gleason and Mason’s wife Abbey established the Mason Lowe Award in Mason’s memory. As part of the award, each recipient receives a plaque and a cross necklace containing leather from the riding boots Mason was wearing the night he died.
Two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood won the inaugural award last year.
Leme received the cross at the World Finals this year on the same dirt inside AT&T Stadium in which Lowe made his own memorable ride on Smooth Operator.
“It is a good award for me and for my career,” Leme concluded. “This is very special because this remembers Mason, and I will carry it with me for the rest of my life.”
LANE FROST/BRENT THURMAN AWARD
Leme also won the Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Award at the 2020 PBR World Finals with his gold buckle-clinching 95.75-point ride on Woopaa.
The Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Award is given annually to the rider who posts the highest-scoring ride at the PBR World Finals. Leme is a two-time award recipient after his first winning the honors in 2017 with his 94.5-point ride on Magic Train.
Past Winners
2019: Rubens Barbosa (95.75 points on Chiseled)
2018: Marco Eguchi (94 points on Spotted Demon)
2017: Jose Vitor Leme (94.5 points on Magic Train)
2016: Cooper Davis (91 points on Catfish John)
2015: J.B. Mauney (92.75 points on SweetPro’s Bruiser)
2014: J.B. Mauney (94 points on Percolator)
2013: J.B. Mauney (93.75 points on Smackdown)
2012: Austin Meier (90.75 points on Shepherd Hills Trapper) / Chris Shivers (90.75 points on Shepherd Hills Sod buster)
2011: Robson Palermo (93.25 points on King of Hearts)
2010: Valdiron de Oliveira (91.5 points on Spit Fire)
2009: J.B. Mauney (93.75 points on Black Pearl)
2008: J.B. Mauney (93.75 points on Crosswired)
2007: J.B. Mauney (92.75 points on Copperhead Slinger)
2006: Adriano Moraes (93 points on Here’s Your Sign) / Dustin Hall (93 points on Here’s Your Sign)
2005: Cody Whitney (94.75 points on Little Yellow Jacket)
2004: Mike Lee (93.75 points on Mossy Oak Mudslinger) / Michael Gaffney (93.75 points on Little Yellow Jacket)
2003: Jody Newberry (94.5 points on Little Yellow Jacket)
2002: Cory McFadden (95 points on Little Yellow Jacket)
2001: Chris Shivers (96.5 points on Dillinger)
2000: Ednei Caminhas (94.5 points on Dillinger)
1999: Chris Shivers (96 points on Trick or Treat) / Terry Don West (96 points on Promiseland)
1998: Cody Custer (95.5 points on Red Wolf)
1997: Troy Dunn (95 points on Red Wolf)
1996: Adriano Moraes (93.5 points on Shotgun Red)
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media