DULUTH, Ga. – 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis’s face was flushed as he rolled into the locker room at Gas South Arena on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. ET – roughly 15 minutes before rider introductions were set to get underway at the PBR Gwinnett Invitational.
Davis attended his son Mack’s basketball game earlier in the morning and was supposed to then fly out of Dallas Love Field Airport at 11 a.m. on a direct flight to Atlanta that would have gotten him into town with at least five hours to spare.
Plenty of time, usually.
Everything seemed to be going to plan until Davis got to the airport. He got a phone call from two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood informing him that he would not be able to head to Duluth because he was sick with a fever.
The problem was that Lockwood had Davis’s gear bag after Davis had missed last weekend’s event in Chicago because of COVID-19.
Therefore, Davis decided to cancel his original flight and make a round-trip detour of two hours to get his gear bag from Lockwood in Oklahoma, and then hop aboard a new flight that departed Dallas at 2 p.m.
“Southwest, they saved me on this one,” Davis said, letting out a breath. “I wasn’t really in a hurry this morning until Jess texted me. It was a chore getting here today. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it. I was a little later than I’d like to be. It kind of felt like I was rodeoing again.”
Davis never truly felt comfortable Saturday night until he heard the resounding 8-second buzzer go off in the arena when he rode Jaywalker for 87.25 points and a ninth-place finish in Round 1.
“I wasn’t relaxed at all until I got off my bull,” Davis said. “I was going a lot faster than what I normally like to have to. I don’t like that.”
Davis earned 11 points to move up to 17th in the world rankings.
There were 17 qualified rides in Round 1.
Brennon Eldred won the round with 90.75 points on Gangster Bones. Rounding out the Top 5 was Derek Kolbaba (89.5 points on Little Bit Crazy), Marco Eguchi (89.5 points on On Da Juice), Kyler Oliver (89 points on John 14:6) and world No. 1 Joao Ricardo Vieira (88.75 points on Havoc).
Davis said he only had mild symptoms from COVID-19 last week and that he felt ready to roll in Duluth – of course, that was once he got his gear bag.
A much more relaxed Davis will attempt to jump into the race for the event victory Sunday when he takes on Lost Highway in Round 2 (8 p.m. ET CBS Sports Network).
“I feel good,” Davis said. “I didn’t really have much other than a headache and sinus, a cough and everything. I feel good, though.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media