Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira roped six steers in 41.48 seconds, which is the fastest time since the BFI moved to the Lazy E Arena and second fastest ever.
Lightning rarely strikes twice. History says the odds are slim to go back-to-back at the Wrangler Bob Feist Invitational Team Roping Classic presented by YETI. It’s a hard-earned win contested under cowboy conditions that include a long scoreline and six strong steers hell bent on beating you to the back end. But after running down and roping six black bullets in 41.48 seconds—which is the fastest since the BFI moved to the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma in 2020 and second fastest ever behind only Trevor Brazile and Patrick Smith’s 40.54 on six in Reno in 2013—Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira held their high-call position to defend their 2024 title, beat the odds and back it up with another BFI win in 2025.
Team Driggers and Nogueira’s second-straight BFI championship was worth a whopping $77,000 per man, including the snappy 6.24-second Wrangler & Priefert Short Round win to close the deal. Each also hauled home Coats Saddles, Gist Buckles, Resistol Hat Pacs, Best Ever Saddle Pads, Justin Full-Quill Ostrich Boots, B&W Hitches, YETI Backpacks, Equinety and Turtlebox Speakers for besting this year’s 108-team field.
“Winning this roping is something we fought long and hard for,” said Driggers, who with Nogueira won gold team roping buckles back-to-back in 2021-22. “Before last year, we never had much success at this roping, so I think that first one has to be the sweetest. To be able to come out on top after six grueling rounds is pretty special. To get it done two years in a row is pretty hard to put into words.”
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“We both wanted to win this roping for a long time,” added Nogueira, who before becoming a world champion team roper won the world all-around crown in 2016. “We watched old BFI tapes back home in Brazil when I was a kid. They had every run on them, and we watched the whole roping. Over and over. The BFI was a big deal then, and it’s just as big a deal now.
“Winning the BFI is very special. Everybody wants to win it once, because it’s a dream to win the BFI. Part of that is because this roping is a classic, and nothing ever changes, from the long score (19 feet) to the strong steers. Only a few teams have ever won it back-to-back, so that’s extra special for our team.”
Seven men in this roping’s rich 48-year history—dating back to the first one in Chowchilla, California in 1977, which was contested over a 35-foot score—have now managed to climb the Roping Mount Everest that is winning two straight BFIs.
Kory Koontz blazed the trail when he won the 1995 BFI with Rube Woolsey, then turned right around and won it again in 1996 behind Matt Tyler. Kory won the BFI a third time with Manny Egusquiza in 2021.
Charles Pogue and Britt Bockius won the BFI together in both 1990 and 2000, after Charles won it the first time with Steve Northcott back in 1991.
Eight-time Champs of the World Speed Williams and Rich Skelton won their first BFI in 1998, then two more consecutively in 2001-02.
They are now joined by Driggers and Nogueira. And there are five ropers who can claim winning three BFI titles in their cowboy careers, including Koontz, Pogue, Williams, Skelton and Clay Tryan (who won it with Patrick Smith in 2005, Walt Woodard in 2008 and Travis Graves in 2012). Clay and Kory are currently 1-2 in all-time BFI earnings with $260,361 and $244,764, respectively.
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“I absolutely do not take our team for granted,” said Georgia native Driggers, who now lives in Stephenville, Texas with his wife, Nicole, and baby boy, Ledger. “When Junior and I paired up, our morals aligned and we were at the same place in our careers and with where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We’ve roped together nine years now, and have become like brothers.
“It’s been hard the last couple months, with me losing most of my horse herd. My two main horses, including Oliver, who I rode here at the BFI last year, are hurt. I recently bought a gray horse I call Zander from (Cody) Snow, but we’ve got some rebuilding to do in the head-horse department. I’ve been jumping from horse to horse here lately, but Junior’s stood behind me and believed in me anyway.
“It’s easy to be a good team member when everything’s going great. When you start hitting in the valley is when you see people’s true intentions. Junior and I win as a team and lose as a team. It’s easy to point fingers when things don’t go as planned, but we try not to ever do that. It’s a lot easier when you’re winning. But at the end of the day, you’re going to lose more than you win. So you’ve got to be able to take it on the chin and keep moving forward.”
Driggers, 35, hitched a ride on Brooke Howell’s horse B1 (his registered name is Cowboy Sangria) on BFI game day after running just two practice steers on him two days before the roping. Howell is the sister of Shayla Hall, who’s married to Wrangler National Finals Rodeo header Brenten Hall.
“With my horses out, at least for the time being, I had been looking for a horse to ride here at the BFI,” Driggers said. “I’d watched Brenten ride this horse quite a bit, and thought he’d be good for this setup. Brenten wasn’t here, because he was in Austin for tonight’s short round. So I jumped at the chance. This horse worked flawlessly for me here today.”
Nogueira rode his old faithful buckskin Lucky Bucky (Smokin Copper King), who’s 15 now and came from Cesar de la Cruz. Junior won last year’s BFI on Lucky Bucky’s back, too.
“Lucky Bucky can really run, and he makes a good turn, so he makes it easy to catch two feet,” Nogueira said. “That’s why I brought him here today—that run, and how he follows a steer through the turn. This horse is tough, and that’s what it took here today.”
As fate had it, Driggers loaned his talented 7-year-old Tia B French to Mississippi’s Marcus Theriot for the BFI. In a freak mishap coming out of the box in Round 2, Chevy went down in the hind end. It was a heartbreaking turn of events for both cowboys and the entire roping and rodeo family. That by night’s end Driggers had won his second-straight BFI and Theriot had hopped a charter flight to Rodeo Austin and come out on top there with Wyatt Cox seemed scripted in the stars.
Bubba Buckaloo stepped up and lent Theriot his horse Gummy to finish the roping. Buckaloo and Joseph Harrison, who roped six steers in 42.83 seconds, were the reserve 2025 BFI champs, and won $42,500 a man, including fourth in the short round. How fitting that their horses took Top Head and Heel Horse of the BFI honors.
Buckaloo rode his 13-year-old Frank (Brooks Feature), and Harrison rode Gucci Equine’s 6-year-old stud Boujee (Nu One Time Blues). And oh, the prize package they left the Lazy E with.
They were presented Lazy L Saddles, Best Ever Saddle Pads, B&W Hitches and Justin Smooth-Quill Ostrich Boots for second in the roping, and Lost Prairie Bronzes by Steve Miller, Classic Equine Horse Blankets, $1,000 bonuses, Equinety, neck sashes for their horses and leather binders on their horses’ behalf.
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“I don’t hardly rodeo anymore, so for my horse to win this award is the equivalent of winning head horse of the year for me,” said Buckaloo, who hangs his hat in Kingston, Oklahoma. “Frank’s the best horse I’ve ever owned. Without a great horse, I’m just an average roper. I’ve ridden some good ones, but he’s changed my career. He scores like there’s a light switch, and he’s a Triple A racehorse with wins on the track when he was younger.”
“I’ve won over $200,000 on Boujee at the rope horse futurities, and he’s a pretty unique young stallion,” added Harrison, who calls Marietta, Oklahoma home. “He’s by One Time Pepto, which comes with a lot of foot speed and feel in one’s belly. These are tough, good-mouthed horses, and Boujee is very alert. He’s fast-footed with a good feel, and he’s aware of everything. I love training young rope horses, so to get this award riding a horse I trained at the BFI—there’s no greater reward.”
The Top Head and Heel Horse of the BFI awards are presented by Dixon Flowers Rope Horses, Lost Prairie Art & Bronze and Equinety. Harrison also won the Top Heel Horse of the BFI award in 2022 riding Freckles Instant Coffee.
As is always the case, the 2025 BFI had it all.
The Rickey Green Fast Time Award is presented in memory of the late Crossfire King and 1984 BFI Heeling Champ, who won it that year behind Mark “Pickles” Arnold. This year’s winners were teen roping sensations Ketch Kelton (winner of the 2025 Timed Event Championship at the Lazy E) and Nicky Northcott (Steve’s son) with their smokin’ 4.84-second sizzler in Round 5. Each was awarded a Clint Orms Silver Money Clip, Justin Boots, and a BFI boot jack and plaque in addition to the $4,000 per man for winning the round.
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Two more young guns in the same age bracket, Tyler Tryan (Clay’s son) and Denton Dunning, jumped out and fearlessly won Round 1 at this year’s BFI in 6.45 seconds.
Then there was Walt Woodard, who’ll be 70 this fall, holding his own against kids a fraction of his age and finishing fifth in the average with Manny Egusquiza. In 2003, Woodard’s son, Travis, became the youngest BFI champion of all time when he won it at 19 heeling for Mikey Fletcher. Five years later, Dad struck for the 2008 BFI title behind Clay Tryan.
Right before Round 5, roping and rodeo legend Mel Potter was recognized in the Lazy E Arena along with his dear old cowboy friend Mike Cervi. Both headed to Heaven recently, and both left lasting legacies in our sport. So touching to see Mel’s four-time World Champion Barrel Racer daughter, Sherry Cervi, and her World Champion Heeler and BFI Champ Husband, Cory Petska, there as they let a steer out in Mel and Mike’s honor and he dragged that rope to the back end of the massive Lazy E Arena in respectful silence. Petska won the 2015 BFI with Erich Rogers.
Legends lost are always in the Lazy E house in spirit, including late BFI champs. How cool it is to look up and see Timed Event Champion banners hanging from the rafters to recognize winners the likes of Leo “The Lion” Camarillo, who won the 1980 BFI with Tee Woolman the same year he helped the young rookie win his first world championship. Tee showed back up this year to tip his hat to Mel and Mike, and the Lion’s banner above him.
Any BFI win is a rare roping feat. Imagine going back-to-back, like Kaleb and Junior just did.
“It’s the prestige and history that makes the BFI different than all other ropings,” Driggers said. “You can only enter one time, and it takes all dadgum day. This thing’s a marathon, and if you’re not mentally drained at the end of the day roping at the BFI, you didn’t win anything. You have to stay focused and keep your game face on to stand a chance.
“Junior and I didn’t talk all day. When we ride out the back after every run, I tell him, ‘Good job.’ But I’m a little bit superstitious. If we don’t talk before the first steer, we’re not talking before the last one. I bought 40 strong steers and a few practice horses to get ready for BFI battle. We were just kind of chipping along and staying in the top five before I got a good start on our fourth steer, we were 6.5 on him and went ahead by about half a second (in the end, their margin of victory was 1.35 seconds).
“That’s when I was like, ‘We might have a chance to repeat here.’ I never tried to win the roping last year or today. I just tried to get the best start I could and rope my steers. You have to go through your steps, build your foundation and just keep building on it as you go, steer by steer. Winning this roping a second time is an unbelievable feeling, and the money’s great. Especially for a guy like me, who’s always in the market for another horse. You can’t win without a great one, and they don’t come cheap.”
“This roping is one of a kind,” said Nogueira, who’s originally from Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, Brazil but now lives near Driggers in Lipan, Texas with his wife, Jaqueline, daughter Isabella, 5; son Jake, 3, who’s named after his mentor and second dad, Jake Barnes (who won the 1988 BFI with Clay Cooper); and baby girl Rebecca. “The steers run so hard, and we run six of them. We get up at 5 in the morning, it starts at 8:30 and it’s an all-day deal. You just try to stay mentally focused. We get physically tired at this roping. But if you run over yourself, you’re out of the roping. It happens all the time, because the long score and huge arena make this one different. I love the BFI, and there’s nothing else like it.
“Winning the BFI is almost like winning a gold buckle. It comes pretty close. A lot of cowboys who are amazing rope and rodeo their whole lives, and everything has to fall your way to be a world champion. My partnership with Kaleb is God anointed, and this roping almost has to come to you. You have to show up ready and super prepared, and can go out there and fight. But to win the BFI, it has to be your day.”