Troy Dog
I’m stoked for this week’s column for a slew of different reasons. In general, I’m Dungey super pumped that the Troy Dog Squad’s own Luke Renzland is back home at Dreamland to start his preparation for his season.
It was only a couple weeks ago that I checked my in on Dozer and the consensus was that the winter blues were setting in. Look, Dozer is not like Ben Lamay who literally eats salmon and lives in the 10 degree Alaska or Colorado forests. We like to be warm, or so I thought.
Last week Dozer traveled to South Carolina and raced his first US Sprint Enduro on his 300cc Dreamland/Troy Dog/vurbmoto backed Husqvarna. If you aren’t familiar with this series, they race on Saturday and Sunday, on two different courses, with a moto (cross) style and an enduro style test. Each day you do each test three times. Dozer also said that each test takes between 7-8 minutes and it’s an all out sprint by yourself against the clock.
My Elite Athlete wasn’t too prepared for this event, as he hasn’t ridden in a couple months, but he wanted to race anyway. I guess the idea of racing in January is fun for some. WE had some carburetor issues and we felt more comfortable in the woods opposed to the wide open berms on the cross test. Despite all that, Arctic temperatures, and snow on the ground, Dozer had a blast and finished 19th overall on Saturday and 15th overall on Sunday. He couldn’t believe the speed of the factory off-road guys.
At the end of the day the goal was to have fun and hang out at the races with friends Mike Stryker, Ron Rothkranz, and Travis Hardcastle. All three of those guys raced in the vet classes and battled hard all weekend. I may have to try one of these someday.
We like to have a lot of fun on the track, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about snow blindness in Dozer Dogs. It’s a very serious matter and something that we all need to take more seriously. Maybe next snow race we can throw on a tinted goggle lens? Also, the cold affected our hands too. We were bashing our knuckles on the trees and everything hurts worse when you’re freezing your balls off.
This week the vibes have changed. Dozer Dog is back home at the Dreamland where he belongs and hes begun his 2022 preparation. We have a lot of different events to hit up this season including more Enduros, GNCCs, some Lucas Oil Pro Motocross rounds, and I heard Flat Track is in the mix as well. All of these events will be raced on two strokes, which I’ve been told that we have fresh new race bikes being built. Keep an eye on @lukerenzland343 on Instagram because we’ve already got content flowing.
Welcome back Dozer Dog. Let’s make some two-stroke noise this year!
Main image: Mike Vizer
