CBR Announces 2017 CBR World Finals Bull Team Challenge Qualifiers
CBR World Finals at Cheyenne Frontier Days
Twenty-four of the sixty CBR Bull Team Challenge (BTC) franchise owners are now preparing to write their own 8 Second history on the dirt in front of the historical Cheyenne Frontier Days Grandstands at Frontier Park Arena. CBR announced today the twenty four professional bucking bull teams who have qualified to compete for the $400,000 cash prize to be awarded after five rounds of the man vs beast tradition at the Real Cowboy Sport – the CBR World Finals.
The 2017 BTC championship event is the seventh time the CBR Bull Team Challenge will power the adrenaline packed two day CBR World Finals held in conjunction with the legendary Cheyenne Frontier Days on July 24 and 25, 2017.
The CBR’s wildly productive program for bovine athletes and their owners have been competing on the Road to Cheyenne since last August. A total of sixteen tour stops paid out $900,000 to the BTC bull team owners this season. Combine that with the $400,000 up for grabs in Cheyenne and at the conclusion of this year’s World Finals, the CBR will have disbursed over one million dollars in prize money on the 2016-17 Road to Cheyenne Tour.
In response to the popularity and growth, newly elected CBR CEO Billy Jaynes has announced a twelve team expansion that will be on track to add an additional $200,000 to the 2018 World Champion Bull Team purse in Cheyenne.
For the seventh year bull owners and investors have seen what opportunity CBR’s Bull Team Challenge offers, impacting the sport by combining the best bucking bulls with today’s professional rock star bull riders. Last year’s World Champion bull team owner had this to say about the pot of gold he found at the end of the rainbow last summer.
“The CBR bull team group is a family of friends,” said the reigning Bull Team Challenge World Champion, Jeff Harris of Palestine, Texas. “Some of our best friends are our competitors and when we all work together to make the events successful, and when it happens it is for everyone, the bull guys, the riders, and especially the fans.”
279 different bucking bulls were bucked during the 2016-17 Road to Cheyenne tour season and according to these all business bull men, recruiting and then keeping top bulls in shape to compete in the sport’s elite CBR Bull Team Challenge is the biggest challenge involved in the CBR’s contest which is held simultaneously to the rider competition.
Long Creek Outfitters and Jeff Harris’s team tied for first place with Scott Burleson and William Barnett’s Team #1 with each team earning 34 points and $44,000 during the regular season.
The individual team earning the most money, The Jaynes Gang, won two events this year (Huron and Rio Rancho) and also earned the most money for an individual team, $50,000. They may have been third on the qualifying grid but add in the Cheyenne Challenge earnings and Jaynes’ Gang was first in combined earnings with a total of $74,000.
Jerilyn Harmon’s Elite Bull Team franchises qualified a total of three teams with Mike White hauling and flanking the four legged superstars who won two event championship titles and a total of $123,000 this season.
THE QUALIFYING PROCESS
From South Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, 60 franchise teams have spent the last 12 months competing to earn the valuable points needed to receive the coveted invitation to Cheyenne.
While money is the allure, it is the points earned along the way that get you to the finals. Twelve points per team are available at each event as twelve teams comprised of three bulls each compete at each of the sixteen tour stops. The winning team wins the lion’s share, $20,000, of the $45,000 available money at each event with the points being awarded in a descending scale from twelve to one. One point being earned by the last place team.
While all 12 teams (at each event) earn points depending on how they finish, four teams finish “in the money” with $20,000, $12,000, $8,000, and $5,000, being the designated payout during the 2016-2017 season.
The second way to qualify for the “winner take all” prize purse available in Cheyenne is by entering and winning the Cheyenne Challenge format featured at four Road to Cheyenne tour events. The first place winner advances directly to the World Finals. This year’s Cheyenne Challenge winners were Jeff Harris’s and Rockin C (Del Rio), Lyndal Hurst and Tom Baker (Enid), Harris, Rawson, and Green Acres (Jackson), Harris Bucking Bulls (Huron).
But during the regular season one question is analyzed and consistently debated by the team owners.
Do rank bull scores win more often or do high marked ride scores offer the safer goal to gaining points and a place on the list of qualifiers?
“It’s a challenge to make sure these bulls always perform when the chute opens”, said three time CBR Stock Contractor of the Year Mike Rawson. “While we are winning points and money we also have a responsibility to our chute boss, Tuff Hedeman, and the event producers to make sure the fans see a good show”.
WHO DID IT BEST?
Jeff Harris is undoubtedly the success story of this year’s bull team challenge…and franchise history. Harris, owner-operator at Rafter J Ranch in Palestine, Texas, has his name associated with an unprecedented six qualified teams. This year the red hot Harris and partners came in second, eighth, fourteenth, and won three Cheyenne Challenge event title championships.
THEY WON HOW MUCH?
A total of $900,000 was awarded to the winning teams on this year’s Road to Cheyenne with high marked bull and high marked ride buckles being awarded at each tour stop. Also topping the list of reasons to win is the custom Fenoglio Boots worn by each event champion, the custom engraved Hyo Silver buckle and a hat from American Hat Company.
“There is no other opportunity in the bucking bull industry to compete for this kind of money weekend, and week out” said Mike White who won the CBR Bull Team Challenge World Finals competition in 2011.
WHERE DO I GET TICKETS TO SEE THESE BULLS?
If you want to see these special 72 bulls compete in person make plans to attend Cheyenne Frontier Days, July 24 -25, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Tickets available thru www.cfdrodeo.com. Links also on www.cbrbull.com
HOW DO I PARTICIPATE IN THE CBR BULL TEAM CHALLENGE?
The CBR is offering a limited number of franchise teams for sale for the 2018 season. For more information Contact Billy Jaynes – billy@cbrbull.com or call the CBR office at (817) 626-2855.
Follow and learn more about these great animal athletes and the CBR Bull Team Challenge on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and Cbrbull.com.
ABOUT CBR BULL TEAM CHALLENGE
Championship Bull Riding developed the partnership franchise league with stock contractors in 2010 to build an organization that allowed bull owners to compete for record setting amounts of money while providing competitive stock for the ever changing talented young athletes in the sport of stand-alone bull riding. The BTC World Finals held its first team World Finals event when the CBR relocated its World Finals to Cheyenne in 2011.
2017 CBR Bull Team Challenge World Finals Qualifiers
| Season Points | BTC Season Earnings | ||
| 1-2 | Burleson / Barnett #1 | 34 | $44,000.00 |
| 1-2 | Long Creek Outfitters / Harris | 34 | $44,000.00 |
| 3-4 | The Jaynes Gang | 33 | $50,000.00 |
| 3-4 | Jerilyn Harmon’s Elite Bulls #1 | 33 | $45,000.00 |
| 5-6 | Jerilyn Harmon’s Elite Bulls #2 | 31 | $33,000.00 |
| 5-6 | JQH Bucking Bulls #1 | 31 | $29,000.00 |
| 7 | Sellers Bucking Bulls / York JCI | 30 | $30,000.00 |
| 8-10 | Burleson / Barnett #2 | 29 | $32,000.00 |
| 8-10 | Rafter B – Rockin C / Harris | 29 | $21,000.00 |
| 8-10 | The Jaynes Gang / Johnston & McKinney | 29 | $28,000.00 |
| 11-12 | Jerilyn Harmon’s Elite Bulls #3 | 27 | $45,000.00 |
| 11-12 | Rawson Bucking Bulls #2 | 27 | $12,000.00 |
| 13 | K&G Bucking Bulls / Barrett | 26 | $12,000.00 |
| 14-15 | Harris Bucking Bulls | 25 | $12,000.00 |
| 14-15 | Championship Pro Rodeo | 25 | $5,000.00 |
| 16-18 | D4 Cattle Co | 24 | $20,000.00 |
| 16-18 | Barker / Barnett #2 | 24 | $12,000.00 |
| 16-18 | C&M Bucking Bulls | 24 | $32,000.00 |
| 19 | Williams / Freeman / Pepper | 23 | $12,000.00 |
| 20 | Hurst Pro Rodeo | 22 | $21,000.00 |
| 21 | Harris Bucking Bulls | Huron, SD – Cheyenne Challenge | |
| 22 | Tom Baker / Lyndal Hurst | Enid, OK – Cheyenne Challenge | |
| 23 | Green Acres / Harris – Rawson | Jackson, TN – Cheyenne Challenge | |
| 24 | Rockin C / Harris | Del Rio, TX – Cheyenne Challenge |
Courtesy of CBR