Troy Dog
Notice that this column now has a sponsor? That’s right! Troy Dog joined the Blu Cru and you should too! I have one in my garage right now and I can’t wait to go shred it! Thank you to Yamaha for believing in my ELITE columns on this dirt bike website enough to sponsor me. What a dream come true! BTW: Have you seen the all-new YZ450F? OH. MY. GOODNESS. I can’t wait to test that bad boy.
I’ll be dating myself here, but I was only two when Brian Deegan made his pro debut in Orlando in 1993. Then, by the time that I started to figure out how cool this sport was in 1998, Brian had raced his last professional race. I would see him rise to become one of the greatest freestyle riders of all-time. It’s truly remarkable how he had such an integral part in creating such an incredible sport that is freestyle motocross. He helped push the limits of what was possible on a dirt bike and then helped with the next generation of talent. If you watched the X Games growing up then you will understand that was a total vibe. That era will be truly unforgettable.
Deegan has a great documentary out on YouTube called “Bloodline” and you should check it out if you haven’t yet.
The purpose of this Takes article is to truly bring to light how great Brian was at racing. I was having a casual conversation with someone a couple weeks ago who casually follows the sport. Since he’s a casual fan I realize that he isn’t going to know deep facts about the sport now, let alone 20 years ago. However, this person said to me that Brian wasn’t even that good at racing. I interrupted this erroneous statement immediately by yelling at them and telling them they don’t know anything. (No this person was not Slaw, but it seems like a Slaw thing to say.)
Let’s get into “T-Dog’s Facts”, it’s like Fowler’s facts except usually Clinton comes to me with the really hard questions. So, I’m used to this stuff.
Brian raced for a lot of smaller teams through the years as well as doing his own deals and never did have any factory equipment. So, for a guy like him in those times, running inside of the top 15 in the 125 nationals should have been a bigger deal. He had his first top ten at Daytona in 1993 in his rookie year. His first top five was at Daytona in 1996. His first podium was at Indianapolis three weeks later and his win came at Los Angeles in 1997. You all know what happened that night, or you should.
In all, Brian had 37 top tens, 7 of those he finished in the top five, and had two podium finishes. In 1996 his string of 125 East finishes were 7-11-9-4-18-3-4-12-7-4. Yeah, sure, it’s a little inconsistent, but he was on a Chaparral Honda at the time. It wasn’t a factory bike. If he put those finishes in today I could see several teams making a play to sign him. Instead he ended up with Moto XXX out of a box van and purple hair. I would have done the same thing had I figured that the teams would never take a chance on me after that season.
Brian Deegan was a great racer. He did it his own way and he learned a lot along the way. He’s an incredibly smart businessman that brought the Metal Mulisha to life with clothing, accessories, and toys as well. Now he’s got possibly the most influential kids on social media and a very successful YouTube channel. In the end everything worked out the way it was supposed to. Everyone knows the name Brian Deegan and I think it’s time that we paid some more respect to the amount of time and effort he put towards his racing career. He is and always will be legit.
