PUEBLO, Colo. -- PUEBLO, Colo. – We hope you’ve recovered from a wild and wonderful PBR Camping World Team Series season, because the 2024 Unleash The Beast season begins this weekend with the PBR Tucson in Tucson, Arizona, on Nov. 10-11.
Round 1 from Tucson Arena airs exclusively on RidePass on Pluto TV at 9:45 p.m. ET before CBS Sports Network has all action from day two on Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. ET.
Before we dive into another season, PBR.com is taking a look at some riders to keep an eye on as the calendar flips to 2024.
Today, let’s dig into some riders who are new to the UTB this season and look to make a splash in what looks to be the most compelling Rookie of the Year race in years.
RELATED: Riders to watch in 2024: Top performers from 2023
Cassio Dias
Premier series rides: 21
Premier series attempts: 33
Premier series riding percentage: 63%
90-point rides: 5
Other notable stats: 2022 PBR Brazil Champion
Each PBR Teams season features a rookie or two who make a splash with their team before making a mark on the Unleash The Beast. In 2023, that rookie was Cassio Dias of the Kansas City Outlaws.
A relative unknown when he was drafted in May, Dias absolutely lit up PBR Teams. He went 20-for-28 for the Outlaws for a breathtaking riding percentage of 71%, finishing No. 2 in the regular-season MVP race behind only two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme. His five 90-point rides tied Leme for the league lead as well.
Dias’s PBR Brazil stats are equally as impressive. He’s a career 43-for-62 (69%) and won the 2022 PBR Brazil Championship. It’s hard not to draw parallels between him and Leme, who won the 2017 PBR Brazil title before immediately turning the U.S. on its head.
Dias actually made his UTB debut last season, going 1-for-5 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He’ll have to pick it up if he wants to be a factor on the premier series this season, but the Dias we saw for the Outlaws shouldn’t have any problem with that.
If Dias keeps pace with his 62% career riding percentage across all levels of competition, he’ll easily be near the top of the Unleash The Beast standings.
Sage Kimzey
Premier series rides: 13
Premier series attempts: 32
Premier series riding percentage: 40%
90-point rides: 3
Other notable stats: Seven-time PRCA bull riding world champion
There are many who thought this day would never come, but here we are: seven-time PRCA world champion Sage Kimzey making his regular-season Unleash The Beast debut. (He competed in the 2017 PBR World Finals, where he went 3-for-6, qualifying via his win at the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals.)
Kimzey is one of the greatest bull riders the PRCA has ever seen, but his PBR experience is relatively limited. He’s competed in several Velocity events, a few Touring Pros, the 2019 Global Cup, and the 2020 Monster Energy Team Challenge. All part-time, though.
Kimzey made his first full-time run in the PBR this year with the Carolina Cowboys in the PBR Camping World Team Series. He missed almost a month early in the season due to injury, but when healthy, he went 5-for-11 (45%) with three 90-point rides. To put that in perspective, 60% of his qualified rides were for 90 points. That is… not bad.
We know that Kimzey is fully capable of winning world titles. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him right in the thick of his first PBR world title race this season.
John Crimber
Premier series rides: 0
Premier series attempts: 0
Premier series riding percentage: N/A
90-point rides: N/A
Other notable stats: No. 2 in 2023 Challenger Series standings
Over the years, there have been quite a few Brazilian rookies whose reputations have preceded them to the United States. It’s much rarer for an American rookie to have that kind of reputation before his UTB debut.
Enter: John Crimber.
The son of Arizona Ridge Riders head coach and PBR legend Paulo Crimber, the younger Crimber has been the subject of mutterings around the PBR since he was riding mini bulls at the 2019 PBR World Finals.
This kid looked like he was going to be special.
He joined the PBR as soon as he turned 18 this summer with his goal already well-known: to become the youngest World Champion in PBR history. And he’s wasted no time. In 25 Challenger Series and PBR Canada events, Crimber has won 10 of them.
That’s not a typo. He’s won 10 events and has gone 30-for-50 (60%).
Yes, the Unleash The Beast is a whole different ballgame, and it’s highly unlikely that Crimber will win 10 premier series events this year. But if there’s ever been a rookie to watch, Crimber makes the extremely short list.
Caden Bunch
Premier series rides: 11
Premier series attempts: 24
Premier series riding percentage: 45%
90-point rides: 1
In what was a fairly uneven season for the PBR Camping World Team Series’ Oklahoma Freedom – they went 14-14 to finish fourth in the regular season but placed sixth at the PBR Teams Championship – a huge bright spot was Caden Bunch.
He had no qualified rides in three outs in 2022, but 2023 was a different story. Bunch went 11-for-17 (64%) as the Freedom’s closer and finished 11th in the regular-season MVP race.
Bunch made his UTB debut in 2022 and has competed in three events, going 0-for-4. He’s 7-for-29 (24%) on the Velocity Tour in limited action.
While he may be overshadowed by some other flashy rookies, Bunch has the potential to make some waves on the premier series.
Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media
