TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — This weekend a Cochise County couple is hosting a barrel racing competition at the Pima County Fairgrounds located at 11300 S Houghton Rd.
Events started on Saturday, June 1 and will run through Sunday, June 2. Races begin at 11am.
James and Alexis Banks are the owners of Crown B Ranch in St. David and the organizers of the event.
While the event took months and months of planning, just a couple of days ago the organizers' property caught on fire.
The Bear Fire burned over 100 acres on Tuesday, May 28. Alexis Banks said about 40 acres of their property was burned, but she still remained focused on the event she had planned just a few days later.
She said, “People come from all over Arizona, New Mexico, California, Texas so I feel like I have a lot of pressure to make their event just enjoyable and we’ll deal with that later.”
The Arizona native said she saw a want for a race like this here in her home state. This is her and her husband’s first time hosting a super show.
“The super show makes it a lot of added money, so there’s $10,000 added, entry fees are a little higher, girls can win thousands of dollars in different divisions and we don’t have a lot of that in Arizona.”
The two-day event had people of different skill levels and ages participating – as young as four years old.
“We open it to everybody, there’s kids, we have lead lines so the parents run around the barrels with their kids, we have peewee kids so we have boys and girls,” Alexis Banks said.
The couple currently has their next race planned for Labor Day weekend at the Pima County Fairgrounds.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
