Erich Rogers and Paden Bray threw down the gauntlet for the rest of the ProRodeo teams on the bubble with a 3.8-second run in Amarillo, Texas, at the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo.
In the first of three nights of competition after a Thursday-morning slack, Rogers and Bray made the fastest run of the rodeo thus far, with No. 15 Jake Orman and his partner No. 17 Brye Crites taking a discouraging no-time. Clay Smith, at No. 14, and partner and World No. 2 Jake Long also took a no-time in slack earlier in the day. Paul David Tierney and Tanner Braden—No. 16 and No. 19 in the world with $79,335.83 won each—also took a no-time in Amarillo in their second-to-last rodeo to official for the standings.
In 2021, Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira won Amarillo with a 4.3-second run worth $2,784 a man. IF (and that’s a big IF on purpose) Rogers and Bray’s 3.8 holds out and the payout is comparable, they’ll have $81,869 and $79,674 won—theoretically moving Rogers to 16th (and 17th if Cory Kidd’s money from Puyallup gets added in thanks to officialing/unofficialing shuffling happening in ProCom). Rogers and Bray will rope tonight at Mona, Utah, too, where Smith and Long lead with a smoking-fast 4.6 and Orman and Crites are second with a 5.4. Rogers and Bray are also up at San Bernardino Sunday night where they’re second out in the last set.
A 3.8 in Amarillo is fast no matter who you are, but last year’s Amarillo champs Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira rope Friday night and have played spoilers all week long on the bubble. When other teams may need first-place money to move up, Driggers and Nogueira have continued their reign of terror on the rest of the ProRodeo teams, winning first at Springhill, Louisiana and they’re entered up through the completion of the season.
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
