Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira are businessmen.
As such, they paid the WCRA nomination fee for every rodeo they entered over their record-setting Fourth-of-July run, catapulting them to the top of WCRA’s Reliance Ranches VRQ Bonus Leaderboard. If they remain in the lead at the end of Nov. 27, 2022, they’ll each receive a $25,000 bonus from Reliance Ranches.
“Nominations were 50% off over the Fourth,” Nogueira said. “So we just nominated everything because that $25,000 at the end of the season will really help. Plus they give a weekly $500 bonus for the person who wins the most in each division, so it’s well worth it.”
Driggers has 6,181.875 points to Women’s Rodeo World Championship heading title holder Kylie McClean’s 3,823.5 in second on the Reliance Ranches VRQ Bonus Leaderboard. Nogueira has 6,181,875 ti WRWC heeling winner Megan Gunter’s 4,504.
Since the WCRA began in 2018, Driggers has won $48,430.46 in WCRA competition, while Nogueira has $50,067.71. They won Rodeo Corpus Christi in 2021.
Driggers has a seemingly insurmountable 4,680.375 lead in the Fort Worth Cowtown Christmas segment standings over second place’s Cutter Duckett, while Nogueira leads Buddy Hawkins by 4,325.375. (The high-point getter gets a bye into the showdown round, bypassing multiple qualification rounds of the event.)
The reigning world championship duo leads the PRCA world standings as of mid-July, on track to break the regular season earnings records set by Clay Smith in 2019 ($150,512) and Travis Graves in 2010 ($147,653). As of July 18, Driggers and Nogueira each have $135,801.27 won—with two months left in the regular season. On average, they’ve won $19,400 per month in the 2022 season.
