MAGIC CITY BUCKOFF: This weekend, for the 29th consecutive season, PBR’s elite 2024 Unleash The Beast travels to Billings, Montana, for Wrangler PBR Billings, presented by Cooper Tires, the twentieth event of the 24-event 2024 individual season. First Interstate Arena at MetraPark will host the PBR for three days of action on Friday, April 12 at 7:45 p.m. MDT, Saturday, April 13, at 6:45 p.m. MDT and Sunday, April 14 at 1:45 p.m. MDT:

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DIAS DOMINATES IN SIOUX FALLS: No. 1 Cassio Dias lit up the scoreboard once again in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, winning his sixth event of the season with a 3-for-4 performance. Justin McBride and Jose Vitor Leme are tied with eight event wins for the most in a season. Dias now has a 580.5-point lead over No. 2 John Crimber. In Round 1 in Sioux Falls, Dias roared out of the gates on Miller Time but was bucked off in 6.26 seconds. Undeterred, the Brazilian rebounded and recorded three straight rides, sitting tall atop Medicine Red for 84.5 points in Round 2 and Blown Away for 87 points in Round 3. Now in top form, Dias stole the show with a monstrous, round-winning, event-high 90.5 points on Ricky Vaughn, his eighth 90-point ride of the season, twice as many as the second most (Crimber: 4). With four events left in the season, Dias is just a few points shy of clinching the No. 1 ranking heading into the PBR World Finals in May.

FROM CORY TO CORT: No. 18 Cort McFadden is one of many rookies who has taken the premier series by storm this season. He has been kept off the scoreboard just once in 12 events this season, going 0-for-2 in Houston, Texas, in just his third career Unleash The Beast event in January. Since then, McFadden hasn’t bucked off more than three consecutive times, and he has finished inside the Top 10 four times this year, highlighted by a career-best third-place finish in Salt Lake City, Utah, in February. The young Texan is now 14-for-35 (40%) on the season heading into Billings, where his father, Cory McFadden, recorded the highest ride score in Billings history, posting a legendary, 95.5-point ride on Little Yellow Jacket in 2002. Recently acquired by the Oklahoma Wildcatters from the Austin Gamblers as part of a blockbuster trade during the 2024 PBR Teams Expansion Draft, the younger McFadden shares a chute with Big Cannon in Round 1 on Friday.

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media