Posted by JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In front of a sold-out Saturday night crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, teenage phenom John Crimber (Decatur, Texas) went a perfect 3-for-3 to win his first-ever PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Unleash The Beast event at the U.S. Border Patrol PBR Jacksonville. Courtesy of the win, earned in walk-off form via a monstrous 90-point ride, Crimber overtook the No. 2 rank in the race for the 2024 PBR World Championship.
Crimber got off to an electric start as competition got underway, tying for the Round 1 win as he covered Flatliner (Blake Sharp/Henry Wilson) for 87 points.
As Championship Saturday got underway, Crimber, widely anticipated being the first pick in the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft, overtook sole position of the top spot on the event leaderboard when he dominated Border Crisis (Hart Cattle Co./Hale) for a commanding 87.75 points.
With the first pick in the championship round bull draft, Crimber elected to go head-to-head with Doze You Down (Dozier Cattle Co./Martinez Bucking Bulls). As the last man to leave the chutes inside VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, Crimber needed a score in excess of 86.25 points to earn his first premier series win.
Poised, Crimber nodded with confidence, erupting from the chutes as the electric crowd was brought to the edge of its seat. Remaining in perfect time with the powerful animal athlete, Crimber reached the requisite 8 with ease. Marked a mammoth 91 points, the qualified ride clinched Crimber’s first Unleash The Beast win. The score marked Crimber’s second 90-point ride on the Unleash The Beast and is his third-highest score across all levels of competition.
Courtesy of the golden finish, Crimber garnered 148 Unleash The Beast points. While he traveled to Florida ranked No. 3 in the 2024 PBR World Championship race, he will leave No. 2, having pulled within 295 points of No. 1 Cassio Dias (Sao F. de Sales, Brazil).
Dias went 1-for-2 in Jacksonville to finish 26th and earned 8 Unleash The Beast points. After bucking off Big Worm (Berryman/Coleman/Ogden/Hart) in a swift 1.46 seconds in Round 1, Dias rebounded in Round 2, topping Hunted Down (Martinez Bucking Bulls, LLC) for 82.5 points.
As the only other rider to go a perfect 3-for-3, Dalton Kasel (Muleshoe, Texas), who rides for the Austin Gamblers in the separate PBR Teams league, was second.
Kasel rode lights out through the opening two rounds of competition, riding Mama’s Boy (Universal Pro Rodeo/Rachel & Dustin Powell/Delmas/Williams) for 87 points in Round 1, and Don’t Come Easy (Blake Sharp/Chris Utz/Carey Brothers) for 84.5 points in Round 2.
While the charismatic Texan converted atop UTZ BesTex Smokestack (Blake Sharp/Chris Utz/Carey Brothers) for 89.5 points in the championship round, it was not enough to hold off a hard-charging Crimber.
Kasel earned 97 Unleash The Beast points for the silver showing. He vaulted from No. 9 to No. 4 in the standings, now within 472.83 points of the No. 1 spot.
Joao Ricardo Vieira (Itatinga, Brazil) was third, collecting 83 Unleash The Beast points.
Despite being tossed by Hoka Hey (Blake Sharp/Chris Utz/Carey Brothers) in a heartbreaking 7.88 seconds in Round 1, Vieira, who rides for the 2023 PBR Teams Champion Texas Rattlers, rebounded in resilient form on Championship Saturday.
Vieira first struck in Round 2 when he rode Doze Off (Martinez Bucking Bulls, LLC) for a round-winning 89 points. The reserved Brazilian then lit up the scoreboard in the championship round when he logged the event’s first 90-point ride, riding Red Demon (Universal Pro Rodeo/Rachel & Dustin Powell/Delmas/Williams) for 90 points.
In the Unleash The Beast standings, Vieira rose three positions from No. 8 to No. 5, pulling within 478.83 points of No. 1 Dias.
2022 PBR World Champion and Carolina Cowboys’ standout Daylon Swearingen (Piffard, New York) parlayed his own 2-for-3 showing into a fourth-place finish.
Swearingen’s 86-point ride atop Lost Pearl (Martinez Bucking Bulls, LLC) and 87.25-point trip aboard Hoka Hey netted him 50.5 Unleash The Beast points. Chasing his second World Championship, Swearingen rose from No. 23 to No. 18 in the standings.
Rounding out the Top 5 in fifth was the Nashville Stampede’s Ednelio Almeida (Cacoal, Brazil).
Almeida rode Mr. Nasty (Blake Sharp/Koe Wetzel/Cody O’Neil) for 84.75 points in Round 1, and Highwire (Hale/Berryman/Nuckols/Ogden/Hart) for 86.75 points but was upended by I’m Legit Too (Hart Cattle Co./Hale) in 3.95 seconds in the championship round.
The Brazilian newcomer earned 42 Unleash The Beast points and climbed from No. 27 to No. 23 in the standings.
In the bull pen, Big Bank (Universal Pro Rodeo/Rachel & Dustin Powell/Delmas/Williams) bucked a cut above the rest, crowned the YETI “Built for the Wild” Bull of the Event. In the championship round, Big Bank posted an unrivaled 44.75-point score for his 3.45 seconds of work against Marco Eguchi (Poa, Brazil).
The PBR Unleash The Beast next travels to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the Ariat PBR Indianapolis. The event is on Saturday, March 2, at 6:45 p.m. EST, and Sunday, March 3, at 1:45 p.m. EST.
Elsewhere in the PBR, the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour held events in both Hampton, Virginia, and Worcester, Massachusetts.
At a sold-out Hampton Coliseum, the Nashville Stampede’s Dener Barbosa (Paulo de Faria, Brazil) went 2-for-3 to win the GOVX PBR Hampton. Barbosa got off to an electric start, winning Round 1 with an 86-point ride atop The Undertaker (Cornwell/Riley/PCP Bucking Bulls). As competition continued, Barbosa sat tall atop Smooth Kat (Cornwell Bucking Bulls) in Round 2, awarded 85 points to remain atop the leaderboard entering the final round. While his final out atopDiamond in the Ruff (Cowtown Rodeo) ended in a 3.64-second buckoff, his opening two scores proved enough to earn him the event win. The victory netted Barbosa 125 Velocity Global points.
The event in Worcester is still in progress.
The PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour next travels to Bridgeport, Connecticut on March 1-2, and Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 2.
#JohnCrimber #PBRJacksonville #UnleashTheBeast #BullRiding #PBRChampion
Press release provided by @PBR
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