World Finals Experience to be on Display at Velocity Tour’s Collision at the Coliseum

By: Cody Nance

PUEBLO, Colo. – The fastest track to the Unleash The Beast, and ultimately the 2021 PBR World Finals, remains to the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour, and 14 riders competing at this weekend’s Collision at the Coliseum can attest to how special an achievement it is to ride at the PBR’s marquee event.

2009 Rookie of the Year Cody Nance leads the 45-rider field in North Charleston, South Carolina, with 11 trips to the PBR World Finals. The Paris, Tennessee, native is trying to work his way back onto the Unleash The Beast after nerve damage in his right shoulder derailed his 2020 campaign and caused him to miss the World Finals for the first time in his career.

 
Nance is 1-for-7 this season at three events (one Unleash The Beast). He sits at No. 64 in the world standings with four world points from his fourth-place finish at the Rainsville, Alabama, TPD event on Jan. 15.

Lexington is Nance’s first Velocity Tour event of the 2021 season, and it is his first PBR-sanctioned event since he went 0-for-2 at the PBR Coors Banquet Invitational at the end of January.

Nance has drawn Simple Man (20-9, PWVT) for Round 1 on Friday night.

Fans can watch all the action from North Charleston at 8 p.m. ET on Friday live on RidePass.

RELATED: North Charleston daysheet

Here is a look at the other 13 riders competing in South Carolina this weekend with at least one World Finals appearance on their resume.

2002 World Champion Ednei Caminhas – 9 World Finals appearances

Ednei Caminhas is trying to defy Father Time and qualify for a 10th career World Finals in 2021 after stepping away from the sport in 2018. The 45-year-old last qualified for the Finals in 2009. Caminhas went 0-for-2 at last weekend’s Velocity Tour event in Lexington, Kentucky.

Rubens Barbosa – 6 World Finals appearances

 
Rubens Barbosa’s career-defining moment for a long time was his 2011 Rookie of the Year title until the 2019 PBR World Finals. It was there inside T-Mobile Arena when Barbosa rode Chiseled for 95.75 points. The ride is tied for the fourth-highest score in PBR World Finals history. Only 10 rides in PBR history have ever been scored higher on the premier series.

Cody Campbell – 5 World Finals appearances

Campbell went 0-for-3 last year at the PBR World Finals after earning a bid to the Finals as a Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour wild card winner. Historically, the PWVT champion and Velocity Tour Finals event winners receive automatic bids to the World Finals. If those riders are already qualified for the World Finals, then riders are selected via the VT standings.

Paulo Lima – 4 World Finals appearances

Lima is currently 44th in the world standings and was the odd man out when it came to receiving the final alternate spot for this weekend’s Unleash The Beast event in Fort Worth, Texas. He is attempting to qualify for the World Finals for the first time since 2018, when he did so via the Velocity Tour Finals. Lima qualified via the Top 30 of the world standings in 2016 after beginning that season with a victory at the PBR Major Monster Energy Buck Off at the Garden in New York City.

Luis Blanco – 4 World Finals appearances

Luis Blanco last competed at the Finals in 2018 as a Velocity Tour wild card qualifier. He also used the VT Finals qualifier system in 2015.

 
Wallace Oliveira – 3 World Finals appearance

Oliveria became the oldest World Finals qualifier (41 years old) in PBR history last season, earning a berth at the Finals by winning a VT wild card berth with a No. 5 finish in the VT standings.

Michael Lane – 3 World Finals appearances

Michael Lane is looking to get back to the World Finals after missing out on the season-culminating event in 2020. That broke a streak of back-to-back World Finals appearances for Lane in 2018-19. He used the Velocity Tour wild card system to earn two of his three World Finals qualifications (2015 & 2018). Lane has five career victories on the Velocity Tour.

Cody Casper, Ouncie Mitchell, Dylan Smith, Francisco Garcia Torres, Bradley Brittain and Austin Richardson – 1 World Finals appearance each

Cody Casper is the highest-ranked rider in the world standings competing this weekend in North Charleston. The No. 38-ranked rider is trying to build off a career-best 2020 season in which he finished 49th in the world standing and appeared at his first World Finals as an alternate.

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

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