ProRodeo Sports News - August 24, 2018

Tour Impact Bareback rider Tim O’Connell won the two-head average at the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour’s Greeley (Colo.) Stampede (June 27-July 3). O’Connell has had immense success in the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour, leading the standings with 1,256 points. Dan Hubbell photo

Justin Finale will factor into who gets to Wrangler NFR BY TRACY RENCK T he 2018 season offered a new avenue in which PRCA cowboys could compete – the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. Unveiled in April, the Wrangler Tour consists of 22 of the PRCA’s biggest rodeos and culminates with the Justin Finale in Puyallup, Wash., Sept. 6-9. The top 24 competitors in the Tour standings in each event will earn a spot at the Justin Finale, as cowboys make a final push toward the all-important Top 15 in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings. O’Connell also understands how important Puyallup will be. “I have guys in my crew who are on the bubble who need to get into Puyallup,” he said. “We all want to be at Puyallup. There’s a lot of money at stake, and that’s going to change the game for who is going to go to the NFR.” O’Connell is traveling with Shane O’Connell and Logan Corbett. Shane O’Connell was 20th in the Aug. 20Wrangler ProRodeo Tour standings and 11th in the world standings. Corbett is 31st in the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour standings and 23rd in the world standings. Like TimO’Connell, the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour has Kimzey’s endorsement. The reigning four-time world champion bull rider leads the Tour’s standings with 822.5 points.

The final twoWrangler ProRodeo Tour events before Puyallup were Kennewick, Wash. (Aug. 21-25) and Ellensburg, Wash. (Aug. 31-Sept. 3). The Wrangler ProRodeo Tour has paid dividends for numerous cowboys, including reigning world champions TimO’Connell and Sage Kimzey. As of Aug. 20, O’Connell had 1,256 points in bareback riding on the Tour, the most by any cowboy in any event. “My game plan is wherever the money is at that’s where my crew and I are going to be,” said O’Connell, the two-time defending bareback riding world champion. “The Wrangler Tour adds that kind of prize money, so that’s where you will see us. I know I was more conscious to make sure I got points in the Wrangler Tour rodeos, and the success I have had in that tour is huge.”

“It’s the premier tour of ProRodeo, and with Puyallup being as big as it is at the end of the year, it is one of the last really big payouts that we have,” Kimzey said. “There are going to be a lot of guys who have their seasons made or broken at Puyallup. There were definitely a couple of times where I scheduled a Tour rodeo over anything else because there’s a big carrot dangling at the end of the Tour at Puyallup.” Steer wrestler Rowdy Parrott, who competed in the Wrangler NFR for the first time a year ago and finished 12th in the world standings, realizes how crucial qualifying for Puyallup is to himmaking a return trip to Las Vegas. He

ProRodeo Sports News 8/24/2018

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