Smooth as Buttar
Dakota Buttar Crowned 2020 PBR Canada Champion
GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alberta – After beginning the season with one mission in mind, Dakota Buttar (Kindersley, Saskatchewan) actualized his goal Saturday evening inside Revolution Place in Grande Prairie, Alberta, capping his dominant year with the 2020 PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Canada Championship.
“I set a goal a couple years ago and when I set a goal I stick to it,” Buttar said of earning the 2020 PBR Canada Championship. “It’s just the different atmosphere at home. Every time I nodded my head, I knew I had my buddies on the chutes. These guys are family friends, we grew up together. I have been having so much fun, and I can’t wait for next season.”
Buttar entered the 2020 PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour Finals week with a stronghold atop the national standings, 99.5 points in front of then No. 2 Brock Radford (De Winton, Alberta).
The Kindersley man had distanced himself from the remainder of the field compliments of a regular-season of historic proportions. Beginning the season with a record-tying 11-out ride streak on home soil, Buttar won two of the four Monster Energy Tour stops, in addition to two of the five Touring Pro Division events.
Determined to prevent a repeat of history, with the national title eluding him in 2019 after entering the PBR Canada Finals as a top-contender for the year-end honor, Buttar was electric from the moment the first bull bucked for the three-day, four-event 2020 PBR Canada Finals.
Going a perfect 2-for-2, Buttar began the week of competition with a third-place finish at the PBR Shell Rotella Challenge.
Riding Just a Jam’n (Vold Rodeo) for 86 points, and covering Tykro Pound Sand (Wild Hoggs/Corey Chmelnyk) for the fifth time in his career, this time for an 86.5 point score, Buttar garnered a critical 42 points to see his lead swell to 137 points over new No. 2-ranked rider Garrett Green (Meeting Creek, Alberta).
Buttar, who was celebrating his 28th birthday, then made a statement at the PBR Wrangler Chute Out, logging his third and fourth consecutive qualified rides inside Revolution Place to win the second leg of the 2020 PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour Finals Week.
The Saskatchewan man’s dominant performance, which was highlighted by an 86.5-point trip on Stay Black (X6 Ranch Bucking Cattle) and 87-point effort aboard Stuntman Hank (Wild Hoggs Bucking Bulls), earned him 77 Canadian points, leaving the No. 2 contender Zane Lambert (Ponoka, Alberta), 165.17 points in his rearview mirror.
Seemingly unstoppable, Buttar momentarily stumbled during the penultimate portion of the PBR Canada Finals week on Saturday night, bucked off by Jappy Feeling Dangerous (Wild Hoggs Bucking Bulls) in 6.14 seconds during the PBR Cooper Tires Classic.
Buttar, however, remained poised and returned in the PBR Built Ford Tough Championship with a vengeance.
Drawing Bull of the Year contender Finning Lil Shorty (Flying Four Bucking Bulls), Buttar matched the striking black-and-white bull jump-for-jump, as the socially-distanced crowd inside Revolution Place erupted in cheer.
Reaching the requisite 8, Buttar was marked 88 points, winning the event and clinching the 2020 PBR Canada Championship and accompanying $20,000 bonus.
Buttar is the 12th different rider in league history to win the PBR Canada Championship, joining the likes of three-time Champion Aaron Roy (Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan) and two-time Champion Lambert.
After a hard-fought effort throughout the three-day event, which including a co-win on the first night of competition, Lambert finished the 2020 season ranked No. 2 in the national standings, 240.17 points behind Buttar. The Top 5 was rounded out by: No. 3 Brock Radford (De Winton, Alberta), No. 4 Callum Miller (Warwick, Queensland, Australia) and No. 5 Green.
Finishing No. 6 in the 2020 PBR Canada Standings, 305 points behind Champion Buttar, Lonnie West (Cadogan, Alberta) concluded the year with an event victory, winning the PBR Cooper Tires Classic.
West rode Duck Soup (Vold Rodeo) for 85 points to garner a $2,625 payday. Compliments of the high marks, as part of the Shell Rotella Rugged Ride for Charity initiative, a $1,500 donation will be made to charity in recognition of West’s event-best score. A matching donation was also made courtesy of Buttar’s Championship winning ride in the PBR Built Ford Tough Championship.
In the bull pen, Catch My Drift (Two Bit Bucking Bulls/K Rose Ranch) delivered two head-turning outs in Grande Prairie, to make an incredible come-from-behind surge and be crowned the 2020 PBR Canada Bull of the Year.
“We’re totally excited about it,” Two Bit Bucking Bulls’ Josh Berezay said from the arena floor inside Revolution Place. “Catch My Drift came to us as a two-year-old and he’s become part of our family. We couldn’t be prouder. “
Ending the regular-season No. 4 in the standings with a 43.33-point average from his Top 3 outs on Canadian soil, Catch My Drift was propelled to the top of the leaderboard courtesy of matching 44.5-point scores during the 2020 PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour Finals Week.
On Thursday evening during the PBR Shell Rotella Challenge, Catch My Drift scored the marks when he dispatched 2017 PBR Canada Rookie of the Year Coy Robbins (Camrose, Alberta) in 3.19 seconds.
Delivering the high-marked out of the event, Catch My Drift clinched the prestigious year end honor on the final day of the season when he made quick work of Tanner Eno (Coronation, Alberta) in the PBR Built Ford Tough Championship, sending the young gun to the dirt in 2.71 seconds.
The powerful bovine concluded the year with a league-best 43.8-point average to earn the $2,500 bonus.
Catch My Drift narrowly defeated 2018 PBR Canada Bull of the Year Happy Camper (Two Bit Bucking Bulls) who finished No. 2 in the race for the second consecutive season. Finishing 2020 with a 43.7-point average, Happy Camper was twice marked 44 points during the 2020 PBR Canada Monster Energy Tour Finals week.
On Saturday evening, PBR Canada also announced the recipients of the coveted 2020 PBR Canada Stock Contractor of the Year, and 2020 PBR Canada Event of the Year awards.
Vold Rodeo and Nansen Vold was crowned the 2020 PBR Canada Stock Contractor of the Year.
The victory marks the fifth consecutive year the Ponoka, Alberta outfit has earned the season honor, and seventh time overall.
Vold Rodeo had four bovine athletes competing for the 2020 PBR Canada Bull of the Year honor, including Timber Jam (Vold Rodeo) who tied for No. 3 in the race, along with VJV Whiskey Hand (Vold Rodeo), Grey Tower III (Vold Rodeo) and Blow Me Away (Vold Rodeo).
Additionally, Vold Rodeo was the lone Canadian outfit to have bulls selected to buck at the 2020 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast on Nov. 12-15 in Arlington, Texas at AT&T Stadium, with two of their bovine athletes, Vertigo Spy (Vold Rodeo) and Jayded (Vold Rodeo/Prescott) earning the selection.
For the fourth time in league history, and first since 2014, the Glen Keeley Memorial was voted as the 2020 PBR Canada Event of the Year.
PHOTOS COURTESY COVY MOORE
