Troy Dog
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Welcome to the 2023 Slaw/Troy Dog/Ginger Dog Combined 250/450 Top Ten Power Rankings! Slaw, Ginger, and Troy each have created their own list of who they believe carry the most power in the sport. They each have created their own categories and have weighted these people accordingly, whether its speed, following, skills, you name it. Or it could just be random. Basically, whatever is happening that week is fair game.
Each week these rankings will be updated so that you guys can argue about how wrong they are in the comment section! Feel free to tell us if we’re right/wrong/or completely dumb.
Ginger Dog:
-Yoooooooder. I don’t think I can spell your last name without adding a ton of extra O’s. It’s just one of those names I have to yell (even as I type it). I want to formally welcome you to the Dog Squad. There was no doubt in my mind you were going to be my #1 this week. FYI, you’re going to be getting a lot of stuff in the mail from me soon (or whenever you’re not traveling the world). I’ll be all up in your DMs to get your sizes. Can’t wait to see how you do in WSX! One word of Vurb insider advice….trust no Slaw Doggy.
-1-1….1. So many 1’s.
-A season of firsts and we are only two weeks in. First moto win and another podium.
-You got the holeshot and led the start of moto 2 which makes sense. I want to credit my man Weege for this one. I read his article on Racer X where he said your team received a shipment of metal starting grates and you spent all of Wednesday before Hangtown doing hundreds of starts. Hunter Lawrence caught you, but you’re currently third in points and your starts are only going to get better.
-Dylan is out there cruisin like he’s Jean Girard. If you don’t know who that is you clearly don’t watch the classics. In all seriousness, Ferrandis, you’re making big gains considering the hit you took in Houston. I’m happy to see you back and I think I’m even happier to see that you took some time to focus on your health.
-First week in 450 and you went 7-7 taking an overall 6th. It’s just meant to be that you take my #6. Congratulations on the round 2 privateer power award! Pulling to 450 was a great move.
-J-Mart. That was incredibly hard to watch so I can only imagine how it felt. Moto has a way of humbling anyone who invests in the sport. One minute you’re up and in a split second it can all change. These guys put their health at risk every time they take the gate. I can’t even think about it too much because the mom part of my brain revs up and I go into protector mode on literally every dude out there. Heal up Jeremy. Vurb loves you and is sending nothing but good energy your way.
-T has been cookin up some good stuff on Squad Pod. His most recent features boss man Blake Wharton. You should go listen.
-We have a Yami in the garage so yeah, go Blu Cru BUT Kawasaki released the deets on their new 2024 KX450 and she’s beautiful. Slaw wrote about it so go read it.
-Harlan may or may not still be picking the hay out of his bike. I kept thinking….really? Hay bales? They ended up saving some dudes from flying even farther so I deem them acceptable. The hay…the chaos…it rechanneled the first word that came to mind when I saw that first turn off the start…NOPE. Actually, the entire track had me saying that. From what I’ve heard all guys involved are okay, but that moto 2 450 start was brutal.
Slaw Dog:
-I need to find out more about the Cats in the Wild team. My god, what an effort from the boys. They may need some funding, hit up Slaw. We can work something out.
-Yeah man… gonna be a longer summer for the 450 boys.
-The story of the weekend. GO LISTEN TO THE Canadian Motocross Unfiltered right now. Worth your time.
-Say what you want, but dude has speed for days. What an effort in his 450 debut.
-Hunta gonna Hunta
-Under the radar cool story. D Dog had a heart issue and has battled back and is killing it in the 450 Class.
-Dude………..
-Great to see Jalek healthy. Remember, he’s won an overall? Yeah, he’s good when 100%.
-Off-road dude just crushing souls?
-Anyone else thought they misspelled Brock Papi’s name? Same. Good job for the French rider.
Troy Dog:
-I SIGNED A NEW ELITE ATHLETE TO MY SQUAD! Hunter Yoder signed on to race WSX and I’m very excited to help him out. He’s got a new ride with the Pipes Motorsports Group and he’ll be racing SX2 for them. It’s a great opportunity for “Yodog” which is his new name. I know my team over at HEP will be very excited to see the pineapple on Yoder’s helmet at each event as well as getting the press that I bring to the table. Yoder is a great dude. He even wore my sticker on his practice helmets last year. My kids are huge fans as well. They saw him on Blippi and even wrote a song about him. It’s a perfect fit. The deal is just for WSX at the moment, but if I have it my way it’ll be a whole lot longer.
-Elly De La Cruz is the greatest thing to ever happen to the city of Cincinnati since Ken Griffey Jr. came to town. I haven’t seen the fans this excited for Reds baseball in about ten years or so. Even at the beginning of Spring Training this year all I heard was that this team was going to be horrible and no one had hope. However, one man who had given up on the Bengals 15 years ago, was not ready to throw in the towel on HIS team. That man is me. I knew what we had with Elly De La Cruz. This dude is going to be the greatest player to ever play the game.
-On this week’s Squad Pod, hosted by ME, I had an archive of Blake Wharton that I decided to share with the world. He dove into his amateur career and talked about the process from moving from Suzukis to KTM to GEICO Honda. He talked about how much he liked his KTMs and how he never had the chance to race a 450 as a pro. He added a lot of great insight, so please listen in and thank you in advance!
–I interviewed Jerry Robin this week to discuss his season and he was very honest in telling me how he almost had to quit racing last year due to a severely damaged shoulder. Now he’s putting in the best results of his career and is up for top privateer at every race in 450MX.
-My buddy Chris Betts talked me off a ledge this week when I asked him why the Reds hadn’t brought up De La Cruz. He added some much needed insight and told me that it was the organization’s fault. Well, the next day DLC got the call up and I think Betts made a few calls and called him up himself. We need to hire Betts on our coaching staff or possibly just make him the new Reds team manager.
-Deegan is a title contender and he’s going to be a 250 legend by the time he moves up to the 450 class.
-Wildcat Racing, which consists of Jose Butron and Lorenzo Locurcio, have been battling it out inside the top ten of the 450 class. I didn’t know they were even racing outdoors. Props to these guys and thanks for following me back on IG Locurcio!
-Terren O’Dell is racing Thunder Valley. Yes, that Terren O’Dell. The one time hot shoe amateur who could run with and beat anyone on any given weekend. He hasn’t raced a national in thirteen years and it’s a perfect time to start again.
-Weezer is a great band.
-Ty Masterpool has one of the most interesting careers going in this sport. He was top privateer of the 450 class at Hangtown via 7-7 results.
Main image: Pro Motocross
