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Round 2 win tees off Briscoe’s quest for 2010 title

DULUTH, Ga. (November 22, 2009) - The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Five times now, Travis Briscoe has attended the World Champions banquet at the conclusion of the PBR World Finals, and every year it’s been the same thing. He’s sat there and listened to someone else talk about what it feels like to win a world title.

“I’m proud of the guys who won it before,” he said Saturday night after winning Round 2 of the Challenger Tour Finals, which is also the first event of the 2010 Built Ford Tough Series. “But it’s my time now, so I’m going to go for it.

“Before I wouldn’t speak ahead, but I feel really confident as long as I can stay healthy, and if I can keep drawing like I have drawn, I think I actually have a shot at it.”

Briscoe took home $20,000 for the round win. His 88.25 points on The Juice combined with his 85.25-point effort from Friday night to give the New Mexico native the lead in the average after two rounds. Two more rounds are slated for Sunday afternoon at The Arena at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga.

The 22-year-old is focused on this event, which pays $200,000 to the winner, but his season-long goal is keeping his priorities in order.

He’s experienced enough to realize it’s a seven-day-a-week commitment for the entire year to be the one at the end wearing the gold buckle.

“I just found that inner kid that just wants to focus every day,” Briscoe said. “I just feel it every day, just wanting it, craving it. And I’ve been working out, doing my thing and that’s what it takes. You have to be mentally and physically fit to do it.

“I think things are going to be that way because now I have a demand on my shoulder that says, ‘You’re going to do this.’”

This weekend, Briscoe is one of nine or 56 riders to earn two qualified rides in two rounds, and leads Guilherme Marchi by a half point in the average.

Along with those nine riders – Dustin Elliott, Robson Palermo, Jordan Hupp, Renato Nunes, Edimundo Gomes, Valdiron de Oliveria and Ryan McConnel – another 21 have at least one score in the first two rounds as all 30 advance to Round 3, which will cut back to the traditional 40 bull riders in the draw.

Since there were only 30 different riders to score, another 10 riders made it back to the final long round through a random computer draw, in spite of not making the whistle in either of the first two rounds.

Mike Lee still leads the overall Challenger Tour standings with $206,711.11.

J.B. Mauney, who finished Round 2 ninth in the average with an 86.5-point effort, is second in the Challenger standings, followed by Austin Meier, Kody Lostroh (who is not competing this weekend after undergoing surgery on his left riding elbow) and L.J. Jenkins, who under the weather.

However, with the event winner earning another $200,000, all 40 cowboys competing Sunday afternoon still have an opportunity to be crowned this year’s Challenger Champion.

That average payout gives both Briscoe and Round 1 winner Ross Coleman an opportunity to win the lower-level title as well, even though they’re both respectively ranked 64th and 62nd in the Challenger standings.

But for most of the professional bull riders it’s about getting their seasons off to a good start, especially after seeing the 2009 campaign come down to the last day of the Finals before Kody Lostroh beat out J.B. Mauney for the title by only 594 points.

Briscoe saw that play out too, and yes, he listened to Lostroh’s speech as well.

Nevertheless, he’s better for having listened, and now he’s taking a mature approach of a veteran when it comes to the 2010 season.

“That’s it,” agreed Briscoe, who wants to be the best, “it took maturity.

“I heard a quote today that said, ‘Don’t quit before the miracle happens.’ So I’m going to just keep going and have the year I’ve been trying to have.”

—by Keith Ryan Cartwright, PBRNow.com