Troy Dog
The Indianapolis Supercross is always going to mean so much to me, no matter how old I get. Every year, since my first one with my dad in 2003, has been a great memory of my life. This year was no different. A few weeks ago I came up with the idea to do some fun content with the boys over at HEP Suzuki. It was a no brainer because although they run a tight ship over there they still like to have a fun time. With guys like Marshal Weltin, Shane McElrath, and Kyle Chisholm around it’s going to be a fun time regardless.
Pipes approved my ideas without really asking about anything, so that was great. Ginger Dog (my wife, and way better than me – Slaw) and I set off to Indy bright and early on Saturday morning. On top of my HEP duties I was a full on CEO journalist as well.
When we walked into the pits, the first person that we ran into was Vital MX’s own Jamie Guida. Some of you out there (some from England) don’t like nicknames for some reason, but I like to call him Darkside. It was the first time that we’ve ever met in person, so I got a photo with him and talked for a bit.
Then we headed off to the HEP truck, where I set up my new GoPro Hero 11 and got to work with my vlog. Shoutout to GoPro and Wes Williams for the hookup on the camera. My longtime friend Pipes was all business as usual, but he had some extra good vibes this year. I think having Larry Brooks on board as the team manager has taken a bit of stress off of his plate. I know it would help me out. My savior of the weekend, as always, was the team’s media professional Chase Lennemann. I’ve known Chase since I was involved with the team as a sponsor in 2019 and it’s always great to catch up with him. He actually gave me more ideas for my vlog and helped film. Shoutout to him!
I did some interviews with McElrath and Chiz between practices. They both said that I should go out and ride for them in the next practice because I would do a lot better than them. Shane kept calling me Dylan, even though he knows my name. No one was ever quite sure of the Dylan reference, but McElrath was having fun messing with me while I was there. That’s my teammate.
I made a pact with Lennemann that since I was dressing up in Weltin’s gear that I would avoid him as much as possible, since I was him. I was taking Weltin’s locker over and everything. I ended up putting on Weltin’s gear at the autograph signing. It was a mess. I had people taking photos with me and asking me how the track was. You can see all of it in my vlog later this week. Everyone was confused, which is exactly what I wanted.
I went over to the Rock River Yamaha truck to check in on Benny Bloss and the T-Dog Squad’s own Grant Harlan. Upon entering the vicinity, Benny immediately calls out to me and starts making fun that I’m a Bengals fan. I did investigate (that’s what great journalists do) on whether or not Benny and Grant are starting a cult. They said they are not, but I’m not quite sure I believe them. Benny had some very questionable singing going on and it was rather culty. Har Dog was moody as always and I tried to get him to laugh or smile (probably a rule of the cult thingy), but had no luck. Meanwhile, ARay was stoked to see me at a race and said that he was sore, but his vibes were great. It’s always nice to see Alex Ray.
Before the season I sent the Squad a box of goodies and stickers for the season. That’s what we do over here. We run a very tight program. Well, it turns out that Starling was so excited for his new T-Dog Squad clothing, that he didn’t see the stickers in the box and threw them away by accident. Well, I had to make a special delivery of some fresh stickers and of course he was pitted underneath the stadium. For those of you that don’t know, going down to that part of the stadium is a long walk. Starling is worth that walk. I ended up meeting his fiance Nicole for the first time and we talked about their upcoming wedding and life. Starling did threaten me and told me that he would beat me up if I didn’t make it to his wedding day. I promised I’d make it. Stay tuned.
I ran into Clinton Fowler (3 Laps Down, Fowler’s Facts, owner of all sorts of nicknames) and he introduced me to Leigh Diffey, yes that one. Diffey was asking me questions and I was honestly just very impressed with how nice of a person he was. That was an interaction I never thought that I would have the chance to have.
After that I met up with Ginger Dog who had been watching practice alone and luckily she didn’t have a bunch of dudes around her. We went and got something to eat and checked into our hotel before going back to the stadium before the night show.
I was shocked at the amount of people in the pits all day and the lines to get into the stadium were crazy. Supercross was back to normal at Indy! We met up with Darkside and sat with him to watch the racing. Also holding court was Steve Matthes. We talked about child names, being nicer to Darkside, how I wasn’t going to the Red Garter, how Slaw is at fault for the lack of BBQ chips in the press box, plus more. He won’t mention me in any of his columns, but I had a great time broing down with him as always. I also met RotoMoto and since it bothers some people that I use nicknames I’m just really going to drive this home. Roto wanted to meet up last year and we never quite could, so it was cool to finally meet him.
I also met Michael Antonovich, the 2022 AMA Media Member of the year. “Anton” is his nickname, so that’s what I’ll run with here. I was surprised that Anton even knew who I was and he’s probably the nicest person I’ve ever met. One of the cooler interactions I had on the day.
We had the best 450 main event that you could ask for too. It was the icing on the cake for the day that we had at the races. Ken Roczen, my teammate, took HEP Suzuki to their first main event win. Shoutout to Aaron, Dustin, Larry and everyone at HEP. Earlier in the day while we were filming I left Roczen alone. Lennemann and I looked at one another at some point and said, that guy is going to win tonight. He was just in the zone. He got the job done even with a hard charging Justin Barcia behind him.
I’m not saying that I was HEP’s good luck charm, but I was. All good things happen in Indy. I was in attendance when Pipes made his first ever main event in Indy. It’s me. Pipes did ask me if I was going to Detroit and looked rather sad when I said no.
After the press conference I went up and introduced myself to Daniel Blair. I walked with Nate Thrasher and Jordon Smith back to the Star rig. Smith really loves Indianapolis and I think he might move there at some point in his life. He said he knows me because I’m all over Twitter, so I thought that was pretty cool. We also talked about how Levi Kitchen said that Jordon would beat him in arm wrestling. He’s got that dad strength.
I went back to the HEP truck to congratulate the team. They were having a blast and taking photos as well as emptying out the Twisted Tea coolers. I went and thanked Dustin for everything and had a nice chat. I told him some things that I won’t share here, but I’ve watched his journey very closely the past 13 years. He earned that W! In parting, he told me to make sure that I move the rest of Weltin’s stuff out of MY locker. So, I did. I shoved all his gear in my backpack.
WE don’t get to come out to many races these days, but every time I get to one it’s pretty successful. Vurb was in full effect at Indy and people noticed, so if I can do that then I’m doing my CEO duties. Also, shoutout to my wife Ginger Dog. She loves this sport and watching the races. She wrote a column earlier this week about what she saw “From a Fan’s Perspective”. You should read it. What other media outlet has a woman writing about the races? WE cover all the bases here at Vurb and Mrs. CEO is a teacher, so you know her grammar and delivery is fire! It’s a long day and she was there every step of the way.
That’s pretty much it from Indy. It was a very busy day and it was a big success. With my kid’s getting older it may be easier to go to more races in the future, but for now I’m going back to my CEO chair to watch the races.
Thank you all for the support and for a great weekend!
Main image: Chase Lennemann/HEP Suzuki
