Pendleton Whisky Tour Comes to the Ford Wyoming Center
The Professional Bull Rider's (PBR) organization will host a stop at the Ford Wyoming Center on April 2 for the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour.
This will be the fourth time the tour has been in Casper, with the last time being in 2020, as the PBR had limited events in 2021 due to COVID-19.
The Velocity Tour began in 2014 as the second tour for the PBR, which also hosts events during Cheyenne's Pioneer day, as well as smaller ones in Cody and Sheridan.
Robert Simpson, Velocity Tour general manager, said the PBR makes sure to test all the people working for them on the event both beforehand and on the day of the event.
While he isn't sure on actual numbers, Simpson said he believes the number of attendees in Casper has grown since they started doing the Velocity Tour in 2018 and hopes to see more fans this year.
Simpson said Casper is a good area to host an event like this due to an established fanbase for the Velocity Tour.
"It's a good market," Simpson said. "There's a lot of PBR fans in and around central Wyoming and we also draw from around. We'll draw from Cheyenne, Laramie, southern Montana. It's a good regional event for us that draws all of our fans from a four, five-hour driving distance who will come to Casper. There's a lot of history in Casper you know, cowboys, it's our kind of town. Our fans, we know they're already there, but then bringing the PBR stature and an event like this, in conjunction with the college finals, it just works well."
Simpson said injuries happen often enough when it comes to bull riders, but the PBR makes sure to have doctors on hand.
"They're getting on 2200 pound animals, multiple 2200 pound animals every week. Simpson said. "With bull riders, it's not a question of if you get hurt it's when and how bad. We travel with sports medicine at every event that we have so we have a team of trainers and doctors that come and take care of the riders and if a guy gets off and says man my shoulder hurts, we actually have it evaluated right on the spot because they're what we feature. Just like an NFL game, a guy gets hurt he gets evaluated by a team doctor, same concept with our bulls and the PBR."