LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Eighteen-year-old John Crimber’s pursuit of the 2024 World Championship could have ended earlier this week.
On Thursday night, Crimber competed in the Touring Pro Division’s PBR Stockyards Showcase at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. He rode Head Honcho for 85.5 points in Round 1 and was matched up against Rack Em in the championship round. Before he could even get out of the chute, he took a shot to the face from Rack Em’s horn.
Crimber was awarded a re-ride, but his Round 1 score was good for the event win.
“I got slightly a bit of a headache after, but everything’s good,” Crimber said with a smile.
At the end of a long, difficult season, why compete at the Stockyards Showcase at all?
Crimber noticed he was sitting outside the Top 35 of the Velocity Global standings and wanted to qualify for the 2024 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals on May 3-4 in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Before he made his Unleash The Beast debut in November, Crimber won a PBR Canada event, which kept him in the Velocity Global game all season.
“A couple weeks ago, I looked at it and I was 45th,” Crimber said. “And I was like, ‘Alright, whoa. I want to make the Velocity Finals.’”
He checked with the PBR competition department, who gave him the math – a win at the Stockyards Showcase would qualify him for the Velocity Finals.
“So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m not going to go there for second. I’m going to go there and win it,’” Crimber said. “So I went and entered, and I drew really good bulls over there, and I actually ended up winning and qualifying for my first Velocity Finals.
“I’ve always kind of liked going to the Velocity Finals, just to watch and stuff, and it’s been always a dream of mine to make Velocity and PBR World Finals.”
Crimber doesn’t have to go to the Velocity Finals – his spot at the PBR World Finals has been secure for months, so he doesn’t need to win a wild card berth. And Velocity Global points don’t count towards the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings.
Crimber simply enjoys his job.
“I like getting on bulls. That’s the one thing I’ve always done my whole career, and I don’t want to stop that just because I’m at the professional level,” he said. “Going to the Stockyards, that’s kind of where I first started my professional career. And before that, I used to enter it when I was 15, 16, at the little rodeos they’ve got over there every weekend. Next week is the week before the Finals, and why not go over there and get on practice bulls for money? That’s what I want to do.”
Feeling comfortable at Cowtown Coliseum could have $1 million worth of benefits for Crimber, as the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast kicks off there on May 9-12 with Eliminations.
If Crimber remains in the Top 15 after those four rounds – which looks like a solid bet – he’ll advance to the Championship Rounds in AT&T Stadium on May 18-19, where he’ll compete for the World Championship.
“When I first went and rode (at Cowtown Coliseum), I was 15,” he said. “It was me stepping up from junior bulls to actual bigger bulls and stuff, and I won that day. And after that, it’s been like home over there. Every time I go over there, it’s fun going. I think I won seven Stockyards Showcases before (UTB), and now they’ve moved the World Finals to Stockyards, so win-win for me. I like it! I have good success there, so we’re just going to try to keep it rolling at the World Finals.”
Crimber has spent the season trying to run down No. 1 Cassio Dias, who won his seventh event of the season at the Cooper Tires PBR Louisville, presented by Pneu-Dart, this weekend. Crimber led the event heading into the championship round but was bucked off by Doze You Down in 4.97 seconds. He went 1-for-3 on the weekend, with his 88.75-point trip on Renegade winning Round 2.
The fourth-place finish did move Crimber back to the No. 2 rank in the world standings, though now 560.5 points behind Dias. Former No. 2 Eduardo Aparecido slipped back to No. 4 thanks to No. 3 Dalton Kasel’s second-place finish.
Nos. 2-5 in the standings are separated by just 76.83 points, with No. 5 Alan de Souza winning back-to-back events in Everett and Tacoma, Washington, last week.
While Crimber admits to occasionally being frustrated by Dias’s dominance – Louisville is the second time this season that he’s fallen short of a victory in the championship round only for Dias to snatch it away – he’s still been enjoying his first world title race.
“It’s been really fun,” Crimber said. “I like this situation a lot better, being second, because that means I’ve got to ride and do my job more. And Cassio’s riding really good, and we’re all good friends, so it’s kind of just a friendly rivalry. We’re just out there having fun and doing what we love to do.
“When we crawl in that bucking chute, that’s when that competition starts. It’s friendly before that and maybe after, but right in that moment, it’s competition. We’re not out there to be buddies. We’re trying to win.”
Crimber will keep trying to win next weekend at the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals, and then at his second home of Cowtown Coliseum during the PBR World Finals.
In the meantime, his preparation is exactly what he’s been doing for his whole career.
“Get on bulls,” Crimber said. “That’s the only thing. Get on bulls. That’s what I like doing, and I’m just going to keep doing that.”
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
