Lockwood Reverses Course and Will Ride in Nampa; Draw Notes
By: Justin Felisko
October 17, 2018
Reigning World Champion Jess Lockwood will return from his groin injury to compete at the DeWalt Guaranteed Tough Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Nampa, Idaho. Photo: Andy Watson/BullStockMedia.com.
PUEBLO, Colo. – Five days after originally saying he would be sitting out until the 2018 PBR World Finals, reigning World Champion Jess Lockwood has had a change of a heart.
Lockwood had just gotten done with a workout on Sunday night at home in Volborg, Montana, when he looked at his brother Jake, and their two pals Mason Taylor and Weston Hartman.
“There is not a point of staying home if I feel this great,” Jess said unsurely. “There is no point to at least not try and see if I can go.”
The trio quickly said if he feels good, he should go try and get on a practice bull this week vs. waiting three weeks until the week of the PBR World Finals.
Lockwood therefore followed Dr. Tandy Freeman’s advice from his appointment on Thursday.
The 21-year-old got on his bucking machine Monday afternoon with no setbacks.
The next step was heading to the practice pen on Tuesday for one final test.
Was his torn right groin finally ready?
“I was like, ‘Well let’s test it,’ and it felt great,” Lockwood said. “It would be really dumb sitting at home. That’s like dang near being healthy and saying, ‘Ah, I don’t want to go.’”
Lockwood is now loading up his gear bag and returning to competition this weekend in Nampa, Idaho, for the DeWalt Guaranteed Tough Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires.
Lockwood has drawn My Creation (0-0, PBR UTB) for Round 1 at the Ford Idaho Center on Saturday night.
The No. 11 rider in the world standings is on the verge of being eliminated from the 2018 World Championship race, but sometimes the urge to ride wins out over everything else.
Lockwood trails world leader Kaique Pacheco by 3,279.16 points in the world standings, and he conceded on RidePass during the Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour event in Rapid City, South Dakota, that he believes he will be passing the World Championship torch to either Pacheco or No. 3 Jose Vitor Leme.
Pacheco has drawn Buck Nasty (0-0, PBR UTB) and leads No. 2 Claudio Montanha Jr. by 1,933.33 points.
Pacheco’s 5,246.66 world points is already more than Lockwood earned last year to win the world title (4,862.5).
Lockwood has missed the last five events because of a torn right groin.
He first sustained the injury in Nashville at the Music City Knockout in August attempting to ride Locke & Loaded. He then aggravated the injury last month in Springfield, Missouri, during his 70-point ride on Powder Puff.
This weekend is the final regular-season 25th PBR: Unleash The Beast of 2018.
Lockwood said he may compete at the 2018 Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour Finals. Any PBR World Champion with provisional status for 2018 is expected to receive an invitation, per a source.
Fellow World Champions Cooper Davis (rib) and Guilherme Marchi (shoulder) will miss the regular-season finale in Nampa.
Davis and Marchi are two of five injured riders inside the Top 35 that will not be making the trip to Idaho. Also not competing are No. 15 Matt Triplett(wrist), No. 31 Sean Willingham (hamstring) and No. 33 Lonnie West(shoulder).
Meanwhile, No. 35 Marcos Gloria opted to decline his draw spot for Nampa so that he could go compete at the PBR Canada Monster Energy event in Edmonton on Saturday night.
Gloria will look to earn crucial world points in Canada, while the men on his heels will try to take advantage of all the points available in Nampa.
Replacing the five injured riders and Gloria in the draw are No. 36 Brock Radford (-5 points behind Gloria), No. 37 Cannon Cravens (-40 points), No. 38 Emilio Resende (-100 points), No. 39 Cody Jesus (-110 points), No. 40 Alisson de Souza (-135 points) and No. 61 Chase Outlaw (-387.5 points).
No. 42 Rubens Barbosa is this weekend’s Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour invite following the 34-year-old’s victory in Rapid City, South Dakota, last weekend.
Barbosa is 190.84 points out of the Top 35 and is slated to face Ug Mug (0-0, PBR UTB) in Round 1.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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