PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Canada’s elite Monster Energy Tour will buck into Kelowna, on Saturday, July, 7th, at Prospera Place with the Okanagan PBR Challenge.
With this year’s event part of the cross-Canada, nationally-televised Monster Energy Tour, riders will be vying for an increased amount of world points. While Touring Pro Division events award the overall winner 60 points, the winner of this season’s Okanagan PBR Challenge on the Monster Energy Tour will earn 120 points. As part of the Monster Energy Tour, riders will also now have the opportunity to earn added prize money, with the stop collectively awarding $20,000.
In 2017, PBR Canada held its first ever event in the British Columbia city as part of the Touring Pro Division. Brock Radford (De Winton, Alberta) won the stop, his second of a historic four consecutive event wins, as the only rider to deliver a perfect 2-for-2 performance. Radford says an indoor event like the one in Prospera last year makes it easy for riders to get amped up. "The atmosphere gets to the riders a lot more and they want to step up their game and makes rides for the crowd...chutes rumble, shake, clang and bang when them bulls run in."
The show's entertainer Brinson James was very complimentary of how Kelowna fans reacted to their first PBR experience in 2017. "Kelowna was such a party town." "We were on a Wednesday night...I think it was one of the best shows of the season." "This year it's on a Saturday so I can't even imagine how the crowd's gonna react when it's on a live-party Saturday night."
This year, reigning PBR Canada Champion, Zane Lambert (Westbourne, Manitoba) is anticipated to compete, as well as home province hopefuls Jackson Scott (Kamloops, British Columbia) and Jake Gardner (Dawson Creek, British Columbia), in addition to Matt Triplett (Columbia Falls, Montana), one of the PBR’s consistently top-ranked riders.
Tickets for the one-day event go on sale Friday, February 16 at 10 a.m. at the Prospera Place box office.