Kaleb Driggers put on one of the most exciting jackpot performances of 2024 at the Lone Star Shootout in March, splitting $97,000 in the aggregate for finishing second, third and fourth overall at the cutthroat event.
The Lone Star Shootout Open—won by Dustin Egusquiza and Jake Long—offered a maximum of four entries per roper and began with 284 teams. Of the 60 teams that qualified out of the first two rounds of competition on Day 1, Driggers qualified all four of his runs through by turning eight steers: two each for Junior Nogueira in 10.31, Nicky Northcott in 10.86, Jade Corkill in 11.41 and Wesley Thorp in 11.39. He finished no lower than fifth in any of the rotations, which took 10 Open teams and two Incentive teams back to the shootout.
“My partners were all exceptional heelers,” Kaleb Driggers said. “Through the qualifying rounds I was just going out to do my job and rope each steer for what he was, without trying to do too much. Usually, if you don’t run yourself over, you’ve got a good chance of qualifying. But I was fortunate to make it back on all four.”
Driggers was the only roper in the field to come back on each of his runs to the following day’s clean slate, three-head shootout. He’s normally in the social mix behind the head box on jackpot and futurity days, but the Georgian-turned-Texan spent any downtime between runs quietly in the corner of the holding tank with his horse for most of the first two rounds.
“I was just very focused,” Driggers said. “It’s unusual for me to stay to myself that much, but I was roping every 10 to 15 teams in those rounds, so I knew I needed to be ready for each partner. Yeah, I had several back, but I needed to do my best for each of those guys.”
The pace Driggers settled into was quick—on par with the jackpot’s fast-slinging reputation, he was running through four-second runs like he was in the practice pen from the audience view.
“The hardest part of running that many is that you do hit a rhythm,” Driggers said. “But at the same time, you can almost relax a little bit and not focus as much on each individual run. That’s when you make mistakes. So I tried hard to stay focused and reach to each circumstance in front of me.”
By the end of the second round, it was clear that Driggers was in a position to make bank on the day. He advanced to the final round of 20 in the third, fourth and fifth high callback positions with Thorp, Corkill and Northcott, respectively. First up was the teenage phenom.
“I think Nicky and I had to be 5.4 to take the lead,” Driggers said. “That’s all I was after. With (Dustin Egusquiza and Jake Long) coming back in the lead, you aren’t just going to go faster than them. I just wanted to make my runs and let everything fall where it was going to.”
The plan paid off. Staying slightly off the barrier, Driggers set up a shot for Northcott and the duo went straight to the lead with their overall time of 14.45 on three head.
“Once I took the lead with Nicky,” Driggers said. “I knew I just had to keep the ball rolling and try to place as many times as I could. But I was just roping—I never tried to do too much.”
Next up was Corkill. The duo of world champions laid down a textbook run in 4’s and took over the lead with their time of 13.82 seconds overall. Driggers kept gaining momentum, and after riding back up the arena from his run with Corkill, went 4.11 to bring their time to 13.06 on three.
It ended up being Egusquiza and Long’s day for the aggregate win thanks to their blistering 11.66 on three runs and 3.70 turned in from the high callback position, but Driggers cashed in to the tune of $45,000 with Thorp, $30,000 with Corkill and $23,000 with Northcott.
“I go to this roping every year,” Driggers said. “I always go in and try to win it on the final day, and I end up making mistakes along the way. So this year, I told myself to just rope my roping and see what came out of it.”
