The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Brendon Clark Invitational will get under way at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on “first-blood” Friday, when the Australian team takes on the Rest of the World (ROW) from 7.30pm.

Clark will captain a team of Australia’s top 30 bullriders, while his good mate and fellow competitor Luke Snyder from Missouri leads the charge of 11 riders from the international circuit.

The event will run across Friday and Saturday nights and 10 riders from the Australian team will go up against 10 from the ROW on the Friday.

The full complement of riders will take to the ring on the Saturday for an individual championship competition, and there will be more than just bragging rights at stake.

Eight seconds and 900kg of bull will stand between these men and a share of the event’s $40,000 prize pool.

All winnings from the event will contribute to the rider’s standings on the international PBR circuit.

While Clark says there is no one way to prepare for what the next bull could throw at him, when he is sitting in the chute he relies on a lifetime of experience.

“You’re not really thinking about what you’re going to do when you’re sitting there, you just go through the routine that you have done a thousand times before,” he said.

But Snyder was more realistic about what the other side of the chute could bring, in what they call the toughest sport on dirt.

“I guess the thing that we are all aware of is that you can die in this sport. We’ve all known people who have,” Snyder said.

Clark said he was happy to put his name on the event when he was asked, but under one condition.

“They asked me when I was in Vegas last year if I would put my name on an invitational in Australia and I said only if it is in Newcastle,” he said.

“Because I grew up here and was born in Maitland.