SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The first month of the season has been quite the whirlwind of flights and different competition landscapes for Conner Halverson.
The one constant for Halverson is knowing that when he arrives at the tiny Alliance Municipal Airport in Nebraska for his connecting flight to Denver International Airport, there will likely be a fresh pot of coffee waiting for him and the other seven passengers.
Halverson began 2022 intending to solidify himself as an Unleash The Beast mainstay following his first World Finals qualification in 2021.
The 20-year-old has had a mixed bag of results so far this year as he balances bouncing between the Unleash The Beast and the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour ranks.
The second-year pro finished 2021 ranked No. 35 in the world standings, so he, therefore, had no guaranteed Unleash The Beast events and has had to rely on being an alternate early on.
Halverson is 2-for-9 at six events at all levels of competition. He has competed in the likes of Madison Square Garden in New York City to the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.
The Gordon, Nebraska, native is sitting 48th in the world standings, but he will be able to potentially jump back up onto the Unleash The Beast very quickly, depending on how he does this weekend at the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour’s PBR Tractor Supply Co. Classic in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Halverson has drawn Lil Boy Blue for Round 1 on Friday night (8 p.m. ET RidePass on Pluto TV) at Van Andel Arena.
“I just am taking things one bull at a time,” Halverson said. “I know I can ride on the Unleash The Beast after making the Finals last year. When I don’t get to go to a UTB and I go to a Velocity, I know it is not that far out of reach. I just have to stay on, and I will be back on the UTB in no time.”
While Halverson would prefer to be up on the Unleash The Beast, he still appreciates the opportunity to work on his game on the PBR’s development tour and battle his way back into the Top 35.
Halverson’s performance on the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour last season was why he wound up qualifying for the World Finals. Halverson earned 39.28% of his world points at the VT level to propel himself to Las Vegas. He also finished fourth in the Velocity Tour’s $50,000 championship battle.
“The Velocity helped me out a ton,” Halverson said. “After winning two events, that gave me a lot of points, those two wins alone, and just maturing with the bull power and getting used to that really helped me a lot.”
Many fewer points are available at a standard VT event than at a UTB, but a world point is a world point regardless of where it is earned. At a two-day VT event such as Grand Rapids, one rider can earn a maximum of 51 points. A rider in Sacramento for this weekend’s PBR Wrangler Long Live Cowboys Classic, presented by Bass Pro Shops, can earn a maximum of 216 world points.
Halverson said he also would enjoy the opportunity to compete at the 2022 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals, presented by Coastal Bend Chevy Dealers on May 6-7 in Corpus Christi, Texas, so there is an advantage to hitting some Velocity Tour events early in the year.
“Sometimes it is a little nicer to come up to the UTBs through the Velocity because you have points on the Velocity side and the UTB side, and you can go to both Finals,” Halverson concluded.
JACKSONVILLE MAY ALSO IMPACT UTB CUTLINE THIS WEEKEND
Saturday night features another event on the Velocity Tour schedule with the Jacksonville Invitational.
There are two riders competing inside the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena who are already ranked inside the Top 35 of the world standings – No. 25 Marcos Gloria and No. 31 Lane Nobles, who both turned down UTB alternate positions to ride in Florida on Saturday night. Depending on how each rider does and how some of the riders in Sacramento do, there could also be further shuffling in the world standings.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andre Silva/Bull Stock Media