Casey Hicks and Jimmi Jo Montera left the 2025 WCRA Rodeo Corpus Christi with an extra $25,000 after winning the Reliance Ranches VRQ Points Champions Bonus.
The Reliance Ranches VRQ Bonus is awarded each year to the WCRA athletes who nominate their 2024-25 rodeo efforts and earn the most cumulative leaderboard points in their event through the Virtual Rodeo Qualifier. Hicks, of Talala, Oklahoma, claimed the Bonus with a total 16,072.8 points. Greeley, Colorado’s Montera won the heeling VRQ Bonus with a whopping 48,669.1 cumulative points.
The $25,000 Reliance Ranches VRQ Bonus is normally awarded at the end of each year but, due to the cancellation of Rodeo Carolina after Hurricane Helene, the 2024 program was extended to pay out at 2025 Rodeo Corpus Christi.
Casey Hicks wins VRQ heading bonus
When Hicks backed in the box at Rodeo Corpus Christi, he did so with a major disadvantage but a true display of grit. Two weeks prior to Corpus Christi, the 38-year-old cut his thumb off at the ARHFA Oil Can Classic in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Doctors were able to save and reattach his thumb, and while he wasn’t advised to rope in Corpus, he knew the VRQ Bonus was too important to pass up.
Hicks was been a WCRA fan for four years. A rope horse trainer by trade, Hicks is also a regular at the IFR, ACRA Finals, and the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo. Hicks works both ends, holding AQHA World titles in both the heading (2022) and heeling (2021), but his bread and butter is the head side.
Jimmi Jo Montera claims VRQ heeling bonus
Montera, 56, continues to add to her legend status, winning the VRQ heeling Bonus by 31,535.1 points, with 2021 NFR average champion Buddy Hawkins coming in second. With a resume that includes WPRA world titles, Women’s Rodeo World championships, CNFR titles and numerous major roping wins, Montera has a storied history as one of the winningest women to ever swing a rope.
Montera lead both the RCC leaderboard and VRQ Bonus leaderboard since fall of 2024 with NFR qualifiers and PRCA world champions behind her in the standings. To win against some of the top heelers in the entire country was a goal Montera could hardly put into words.
“I think it’s pretty special to me for the fact it is overall and the men, they could nominate enough, too,” Montera said back in the fall. “It’s something that’s open to not just women. The overall deal, it’s kind of fun to know that in my mind, I’m thinking maybe I nominated more, but then again, you look, some of those guys are rodeoing all summer long. I don’t know how much they nominate, but when I was ahead, I thought, ‘Well, shoot, I’ll just keep going for it.'”
