FORT WORTH, Texas – On March 6, Lucas Divino was competing at the PBR Stockyards Showcase, the weekly Touring Pro Division event at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Up to that point, he’d competed in all 10 Unleash The Beast events in the 2024 season and had, in fact, just been at the Ariat PBR Indianapolis the weekend before.

But that was when disaster struck. Divino wrecked out in Cowtown Coliseum when he bucked off of Gangster Time, resulting in fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.

He’d ridden Bamboozle for 87.5 points in Round 1, which was good for a fourth-place finish in the event, but he was told he wouldn’t be able to compete again until the PBR Camping World Team Series in July.

It was to everyone’s surprise when Divino was in the draw for the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals in Corpus Christi, Texas, earlier this month.

“Seven weeks later, I could ride again,” Divino said. “It was Him at the top, because I have no answers for that.”

Divino finished seventh overall in Corpus Christi, not enough to earn a World Finals berth. His early-season performance left him as the third World Finals alternate.

But as the days passed, riders began pulling out due to injury. First, it was Ederson Santos and Wingson Henrique da Silva, giving alternates Dawson Branton and Jake Morinec the chance to compete.

Then, on the afternoon of May 7, Clay Guiton doctored out, and Divino got the call.

He was in.

“God answers, because I knew that I was going to make it,” Divino said. “Like at the beginning of the year, I told Taylor, my wife, I said, ‘I’m going to make the Finals.’ She said, we said, ‘How? I don’t know, but I’m going to be there.’ So I’m here.”

With barely two days’ notice, Divino was in the draw for the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast – Eliminations, coincidentally in the same venue where his season very nearly ended.

But when asked how he’s feeling, the jovial Divino was blunt.

“Ready to win everything,” he said.

Eliminations didn’t fall in Divino’s favor, though, as he finished 18^th overall, going 1-for-4 with an 84-point ride on Cracker Jack in Round 3 his only score.

The Top 15 riders in the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings at the end of the event, plus the Top 5-performing riders in the event aggregate not already in the Top 15 of the standings, advanced directly to the Championship on May 18-19 at AT&T Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

Everyone else, Divino included, now gets one more chance at the Ride for Redemption at Cowtown Coliseum on May 15-16. The Top 5 riders in those two rounds will join the fray in the final push for the gold buckle.

“I have nothing to lose,” Divino said. “I think I made what I was supposed to make, so every day that comes, it’s going to be extra, and it’s going to add something to my career. So I’m ready for anything, for everything. Good to go.”

Divino will take on Storm Trooper in Round 1 of Ride for Redemption. Action begins Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET on RidePass on Pluto TV.

Divino has been riding with something else on his mind lately, as his wife Taylor gave birth to the couple’s second son just three weeks ago. His family isn’t in Fort Worth to cheer him on because his new son is already sick.

“For the first time in my entire life, I hear that a two-week-old baby got sick,” Divino said. “Coughing, hard to breathe, and doctors say they can’t take him because he’s too tiny. Just have to pray.”

But his second experience with a new baby is vastly different from his first, as Divino says he’s much calmer despite the circumstances.

“I think I grew a lot,” Divino said. “The first one, it took me a couple of months for me to clear my head and focus. But on this one, I’m very different. I’m very different because I know they’re safe. I think it’s just more experience on everything. So I know they’re fine. Before, I didn’t know what’s going on, what to do. Now, I know what to do, what I’m supposed to do.”

Despite all the circumstances and obstacles that have been working against him, Divino – and his expressive eyebrows – is happy to be back in the locker room.

His competitors seem to be happy as well.

“I think they’re happy,” Divino said with a laugh, “because I annoy them all the time.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media