McBride Makes PBR History with $200,000 Ride

A packed house at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio witnessed Professional Bull Riders' (PBR) history when Justin McBride (Elk City, Okla.) made the richest ride ever in bull riding during the Rocky Boots Invitational tonight.  As the AlphaTrade National Champion, McBride was offered the Bounty Bull, Frontier, Teague and comedian Ron White's bull Scene of the Crash, and successfully covered him for a purse of $200,000. The 2005 PBR World Champion is on track to win $2 million this season.

The AlphaTrade National Champion title was awarded to McBride for being the number one ranked man at the end of the 2007 Built Ford Tough Series presented by Wrangler (BFTS) regular season. McBride led North Carolina's young gun, J.B. Mauney (Mooresville) by more than 2,000 points entering the Rocky Boots Invitational, an amount which Mauney could not overcome in Columbus, therefore McBride had secured the title last weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah. His AlphaTrade National Champion bonus and the AlphaTrade Bounty Bull bonus for making the 8 second whistle on Scene of the Crash added another $200,000 to McBride's season earnings.  Over the past several weeks, PBR fans selected Scene of the Crash as the AlphaTrade Bounty Bull.

"Anytime you get the chance to get on one of the rankest bulls in the world, it just doesn't get any better than that," said McBride upon claiming the richest ride in bull riding history. "Scene of the Crash just never lets up. He came out tonight and did exactly what I expected."

McBride has virtually re-written bull riding history this season. He won eight events this year, two more than the previous record held by 1999 PBR World Champion, Cody Hart (Gainesville, Texas) and himself during the 2005 season.  He has the most career event wins with 30, and he has already claimed 150% more money during the season than he did when he claimed his first PBR World Championship in 2005, even before this event's windfall.

Now with the richest bull ride ever under his belt all he has left to do is earn $2 million this season to change history yet again. The possibility is within his reach with the $3.2 million PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals presented by Wrangler just two weeks away. Each round pays the winner $20,000 while the PBR World Finals average winner will walk away with $225,000. The cool $1 million PBR World Champion bonus would seal the deal. With all that money still available, McBride could conceivably make and surpass the $2 million mark.

"All of the front runners are healthy enough (heading into the PBR World Finals)," said McBride. "But I'm ready for the challenge to win my second (PBR World) title."

Following the conclusion of the Rocky Boots Invitational there are only four men who have a realistic shot at the 2007 PBR World Championship. McBride leads the pack of men with 11,505.25 BFTS points. Mauney has steadily been McBride's biggest foe all season and remains in second place with 9,777.25 points. However, it's Brazilian sensation, Guilherme Marchi (Leme, Sao Paulo) who has completed the season with several strong finishes. Marchi repeated his performance of last weekend, placing second in the Rocky Boots Invitational with 260.5 points. He heads into the PBR World Finals with 9,257.25 BFTS points. The final man who has a chance to claim the PBR World Championship is Sean Willingham (Summerville, Ga.). He has 6,597.5 points but trails McBride by 4,907.75 points. Willingham will have to put on his best performance ever at the PBR World Finals to overcome McBride's lead.