Troy Dog
Apparently I need to talk to my teammates more. I just chatted with my Twisted Tea HEP Motorsports compadre Brandon Hartranft for the first time this season… and the first time in my life. HEY, I’m busy running a company over here, give me a break!
I learned a lot from ol’ B-Dog and I wanted to share all of the important jazz with you. Before we get to the juicy stuff I must start by saying that both the team and Hartranft, as well as Max Anstie, are working hard to get closer to the lead group in the top five. They’ve been knocking on the door and getting into the top ten during this “middle of the summer” stretch. They’ve been A LOT more competitive and beating factory guys. Hartranft said he knows he can be and will be better in the home stretch. He’s not changing anything in the program to finish out the year. He’s just working on having consistent training days with his trainer Buddy Antunez.
I was curious as to how Hartranft felt his 450 learning curve was going. He obviously had to build from scratch this season as the only 450 rookie who switched brands in the offseason. He told me that the speed of the 450 was difficult to get used to and his starts have gotten a lot better, so he’s been able to latch onto guys and learn the speed this summer. He said that he knows he has a lot to prove in the upcoming rounds to end the season.
If you don’t already know, I love HEP Suzuki, and now I’m officially in love with Twisted Tea. They give me superpowers. I’ve even put down the Claw lately and have been fully dedicated to my title sponsor. As HEP athletes shouldn’t we all get unlimited tea for the duration of our contracts? I’m signed to a lifetime deal, so that means I should get unlimited amounts of brew forever. Hartranft said that he didn’t know who to ask in order to make this happen, but I have a feeling his name sounds like Billy “Bleeping” Grotto. If you’re reading this Twisted Tea, send us riders a couple of pallets each of your liquid gold brewskis. We are tired of our team manager Dustin Pipes holding out on us.
Hartranft is, in my opinion, one of those unlikely guys who have succeeded in the sport. He’s national number 28, in case Peacock didn’t know, and he is from New Jersey. He raced at Loretta’ Lynn’s 10 years in 19 classes, either succeeding or struggling with no in between. His greatest success came in 2015 when he went 1-1-1 in 450 B Limited. Since Loretta’s just wrapped up, I asked him to give me his best story from the Ranch and this is what he had to say.
“We used to park kind of by the entrance where there was shade. Every year we used to make this pit bike circle track. I mean this track would get such sick ruts because everyday we would just rip this circle. We would get so many random people and we would just slam each other. That is the only cool thing I’ve done at Loretta’s.”
Luckily for B-Dog neither Tim Cotter or any member of the Coombs family ever came by to shut down that party.
I was trying to figure out what Hartranft does for fun…but his answers were boring. Like going on the boat, playing Xbox, and hanging out with Alex Ray 60% of his life. He did tell me that he in fact DOES NOT golf, which thank the heavens for that.
I did find out that vurbmoto was a huge part of Hartranft’s life growing up. Like, we are the reason he is what he is today. Here’s what he had to say about us.
“Bro, I used to live for Vurb. Every time I got home from school I’d go straight to the computer to watch. I didn’t even do my homework.”
When I asked him what his teachers thought about that, Hartranft said, “Yeah, they were cool with it. They said vurbmoto was more important than school. So we both agreed on no homework.”
In conclusion, I found out that Hartranft is a really cool dude and no one really knows it. He sticks to himself and works on his craft. I will be checking in on my HEP teammate in the near future to make sure he’s getting the proper pep talks referencing his favorite teammate… ME.
Main image: HEP Motorsports Suzuki
