Troy Dog
The 2022 season of Monster Energy Supercross has come and gone in the blink of an eye. In this series, the T-Dog Squad’s own Justin Starling really showed what he is made of. Star Dog put in his best season of his career, hands down. This season was truly a W on every aspect of Starling’s program. He created his own team FXR/SKDA/JSR Motorsports with his title sponsors having a two year deal with the program. In October of last year, Star Dog officially became a member of the Troy Dog Squad Elite Athlete Program, which was the biggest offseason move ever. It was like Lebron announcing that he was taking his talents down to South Beach.
I’m going to be honest here. I had a lot of faith in Starling heading into the season. I knew we would get in most of the main events and I figured that we could be in the top 15. However, did I think we’d be top ten in practice times, top five in heat races, and fighting for top tens week in and week out in the main event? No way. Starling truly put the Squad on his back (and helmet) and made sure our first full supercross season was one we could never forget.
The season started off amazingly when we won the LCQ at Anaheim 1 and we got that podium coverage. From there we had a couple of rough weeks on the road, but then got back on track to making all of the mains. By the time the season headed East we were building and like A$AP Ferg says, “Ooooh Oooooooooh I’m on a new level.” Out of a van we were battling with the factory guys. We got 12th in Detroit, 11th in Indy, 12th in Seattle, 13th in St.Louis, 14th in Denver, and 9th in Salt Lake City. The Squad’s first top ten finish in a race. WE accomplished some amazing things this season.
Starling was searching for that top ten from around Detroit when he saw he had the speed to do it. On top of that, fellow privateers Cade Clason and Ryan Breece already had a top ten, so that pushed Starling to get one before the season ended. When I asked him about how his ninth felt at the last round he told me that the weight being lifted off of his shoulders felt the best, but he had more of a sense of a “finally” feeling. He still wants more and he’s down to race 30 supercross races a year.
Star Dog just got home. He had been on the road since Denver and then after the final round he was in vacation mode helping Kevin Moranz build a pad for his supercross track. He’s got some of his bikes to go through and has to unpack his race van from a grind of an 18 week season. He plans on coming up to hang out with Ginger Dog and I in a month or two and get a Squad pineapple tattoo. Stay tuned on that. We’re also in talks of how we can make the Squad bigger and better next season. After his results this year the sky’s the limit. Star Dog is onboard as a SQUAD lifer now and we are here to help him in every way possible.
Thanks for an absolutely amazing season Star Dog.
