Troy Dog
I’ll never forget my first Supercross. It was March 2003, my dad and I loaded up his Chevy Astro van that he used for catering and off we went to the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Now I realize 12 years old may seem a little old for your first SX race, but growing up in the 1990s, my dad, Big Rick, assured me that the people in the stands could get a bit rough and rowdy from drinking all day. My mom wouldn’t let him take me early on. The outdoors apparently were a different, I had attended Kenworthy’s a lot, but that’s a different story for another day. The rules were set, from two people who really never gave me any other rules in life. Maybe they just wanted Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, and Mike LaRocco all to themselves?
The Astro Van was locked and loaded with a case of water, maybe a Gatorade, and some soggy turkey sandwiches. We had some chips as well, the potato variety. My dad never came unprepared. You never knew what kind of granola bar or trail mix would lay scattered in the seats of his trusty old van that he would slang ribs out of from his steakhouse restaurant.
It was morning, a cloudy cold day, but none of that mattered. My dad actually took a Saturday off to spend ALL DAY with me at my first Supercross. I was so excited!
To set the stage a little more for this monumental day in my life, I had taken a five year break from the sport. I was obsessed with the NBA for those years and Jr. Pro basketball was life in the winter time. Then in the spring Little League baseball and soccer took a priority. In the fall, I would do another soccer league. This was my life on repeat. I didn’t have time to mess with silly old dirt bikes.
Then one fateful day, we were on family vacation In the early summer of 2002 and my dad found a race on ESPN2. I can’t remember which one for the life of me. It was late and everyone else went to bed. I didn’t want to sleep and in between Game Boy sessions I would look up and catch a glimpse or two of the racing. The heroes that I remembered from the 1997 season and before that were long gone from the 125 class and this new guy named Bubba was out front…going so much faster than I’d ever seen anyone ride before. He was carrying so much speed in the corners and he was gone. The way he threw the bike around was a new style. I was hooked. “Uh, Dad…wake up…can I ride my dirt bike when we get home from our trip?”
A month later he took me to Kenworthy’s and I somehow got Stew’s rookie autograph. That was the first day I spoke to Malcolm as well. I asked him if he was little Bubba and to which he replied, “No, I’m big Bubba!” That’s an actual quote by the way.
My dad and I walked laps around the RCA Dome that day. We didn’t leave the stadium once. We watched every practice session, morning qualifying race, and everything in between. Stew was racing on the West Coast, so I didn’t get to witness him. It didn’t matter. I got to witness Branden Jesseman and Ricky Carmichael win that night, and Shae Bentley’s second to last podium finish. Did you know he finished on the podium the following week in Daytona as well?
My dad and I celebrated a great day at the races with soggy turkey sandwiches from the cooler, a shot of Gatorade, and for dessert I had a chocolate chip Chewy bar that I found while rustling around in the seats of the van.
I proceeded to make this sport my identity for the next 22 years of my life, which brings me to the present day.
I’m a proud father to two amazing boys. Eli is my 6-year-old, who has started to show a big interest in the sport of SuperMotocross and he’s a huge fan of Aaron Plessinger, who he references to as simply “The Cowboy”, and then of course his buddy Hunter Yoder that he was introduced to through Blippi. Sam is our 4-year-old, who is always down for a great time and loves all things RedBud.
I posed the question to Eli and Sam about three months ago: Monster Jam or Supercross? They both love Monster Jam very much and with SX and MJ having back-to-back weekends at Lucas Oil Stadium, I told them to pick one. I assumed that they would choose Monster Jam, but they shocked me and said Supercross. I emailed Feld and Sean Brennan, who has helped me out with media credentials for many years. I told him that it was my children’s first experience with Supercross and I wanted to make it special for them. That’s when Sean surprised me and said, “You know what Troy, you were in a very tight race with Jason Weigandt for media member of the year last year. We had to give it to Weege because he’s Weege–and better than you–but last year you raised the game. Let me take care of everything this weekend for you guys and you report on your journey.”
Okay, he didn’t actually say that first part about the media member of the year, but the second part was true. Off we went on Friday night to our hotel room, which was an unforgettable experience for the kids already. Note to self, next time I want to impress the kiddos all I need to do is take them to a hotel parking garage. We laid low in the hotel room to rest up for the big day ahead of us.
When Saturday afternoon came we ventured out down the street to Lucas Oil Stadium. Also, shoutout to me for picking out one of the closest hotels in the city to Lucas Oil. We had a ten minute walk at most. This is something I will thank myself for later on.
We scanned our tickets in and went to the pits where we met Chelsea and Zoe (our hosts for the day) in the VIP Champions Lounge. When you’re in the tent you get a glimpse into what it must feel like to be Ken Roczen, Chase Sexton, or Cooper Webb. You have endless snacks, coffee, water, hot dogs, and my children’s favorite CANDY. Lots of it in fact. We apologize that Eli ate all of your Reese Eggs (see picture below), but the kid is an animal and he’s sneaky. I also had a Sharpie ready in case anyone stopped by for an autograph–just in case they wanted the (alleged) “runner-up” Media Member of the 2024 season’s autograph.
No one did…
Our family literally had the red carpet rolled out for us (a red carpet leads up to the lounge). When you’re in the VIP Lounge you’re a champion for the day and we were surprised to hear that we would be able to tag along for the track walk and Opening Ceremonies VIP Experiences.
After watching practice and running around the pits all day we had to make a quick stop. Before we went down to the track the dudes wanted to go meet their hero: Hunter Yoder. They’ve been Yoder fans for several years now after watching the Blippi episode over and over. The fact that they could stand by his truck and have a moment to chat with him was something that they will never forget. Hunter even went the extra mile and signed a front number plate graphic and a jersey for them as well. Then he took photos with all of us. Yoder is a gem of a human and if you have time to slip away to the Partzilla PRMX truck at an upcoming Supercross race I suggest that you do so. Shoutout to Yoder, Mitchell Harrison, and of course team manager Julien Perrier, thank you for making my family feel at home in your tent.
Personally, I’ve been on track walk many times before, but getting to experience the look on my family’s faces when we were on the track was priceless for me. It was easy and seamless as well. We met at the track walk sign and a huge turnout of others did as well. It was a great crowd. Zoe handed out a little empty jar complete to each of us with its own personalized label that we could fill with dirt. The kids enjoyed filling up their jar little by little from each jump. I will say that the dirt was very tacky and that made walking up and down the jumps easier, you just had to avoid the knee deep ruts in the transitions. I enjoyed watching the track crew work on the other sections from close up. They truly are masters at their craft. Props to Dirt Wurx for keeping the track under control. I noticed a big difference this year with their prep.
When track walk was over we had just enough time to walk up the ramp to the main floor of the stadium and back into the pits to meet Chelsea and Zoe back at the VIP Lounge. We had the chance to have a couple more snacks (more Reese Eggs for Eli) before we set off to the stadium floor for the final time. I had never witnessed opening ceremonies before from the floor, so this was a very new experience.
In all we spent an hour and a half on the floor of the stadium as we watched the Feld crew, AMA, and broadcast crew make their final preparations for the night show. In all, about 15 of us were on board for this experience. I watched my old boss, 2024 Media Member of the Year, Weege studying hard for his floor announcing gig, and did not bother him. I watched Jason Thomas do 200 push-ups in a row to get the correct buffness for TV. These are certainly things that you cannot put a price on and well worth the VIP ticket price. The Monster Energy girls all thought Sam was the cutest kid they’ve ever seen and gave him fist bumps. The Color Guard members sought Eli out and gave him fist bumps. All the KTM Jr. riders gave all of us fist bumps and we had the chance to tell them “great job.”
When you’re on the floor, you feel like you’re in a fish bowl. You know that it’s loud, but you can’t hear things like you can up high in the seats. I know it’s something to do with architecture, but I’m not an architect and it makes me feel out of it. Weege told them to cut the lights and the show began.
Note the picture below with the 2024 Media Member of the Year, the (alleged) runner-up, one of JT’s swoll biceps, and then Eli…one of the real winners of the night!
We stood right in front of the podium during the National Anthem and it was quite moving. As I stood there holding Eli, I felt very emotional and my body had a great feeling. This was a one of a kind moment in my life that I’ll never forget. Then we were all ushered up the podium steps as opening ceremonies had begun!
Eli was hooked immediately as his “Cowboy” was the first rider introduced. I didn’t brief the boys on anything to expect during this because I wanted them to experience it for themselves. I did tell them that fireworks may be loud, which caught Eli a bit off guard on the Malcolm Stewart intro.
Intro after intro happened and the smiles on my children got bigger and bigger. Eli talked to me throughout the show and is now a big fan of Justin Cooper and Justin Hill as well. Sam was speechless, but said he enjoyed it very much.
Then a surprise for the kids that Zoe gave us a heads up on before we ventured on this journey. Cooper Webb would be starting at the podium for his intro and we would stand off to the other side while he did so. So, when it came time for Coop to go, my kids were blindsided and excited to see him standing right next to them. I first met Coop when he was 12 at Mini O’s in 2009, but I’ve never been able to say that I’ve stood on the podium with him. So, yeah…Indy 2025: my whole family shared the podium with the race winner. Take that Weege!
After the opening ceremonies we were able to watch half of the first 250 Heat race from the podium and that was one of my favorite parts. Anytime you can watch the best riders in the world up close like that truly puts in perspective of how fast they actually are. You get to see the lines and ruts up close as well. We had a great view of the whooped out sand section and in those three laps it deteriorated so quickly. You truly couldn’t ask for a better view.
When we exited the podium to go to our seats, we passed by the riders in 250 Heat 2. Out of nowhere Lance Kobusch saw Eli and ran up to give him a fist bump. At that moment Eli was a Lance Kobusch fan and cheered him on for the rest of the evening. He’ll ask about him next weekend in Birmingham too. Thanks for the added bonus, Lance!
If I were you, I would definitely check out the new VIP Experiences that Supercross has to offer. I’m not just saying that because I feel like I have to. I’ve been going to races as a fan and then as a journalist for over 28 years. I was running around Kenworthy’s when I was four…so that counts. Before I gained media access I felt the need to get as close to the teams and riders as possible to see the sport as close as I could. I was diehard. These VIP experiences did not exist then, but had they, you better believe I’d be begging my dad to forgo the soggy turkey sammiches and invest in one of these experiences. Having the media access gets me into the semi trucks, interviewing riders, and one on one conversations with team managers after a big win. I just kind of assumed that I had seen it all at this point. However, leave it up to Feld to step up their services to create an experience that I hadn’t had yet.
To top it all off, I had my entire family with me. This sport has been a huge part of my life and it’s a lot of fun. I love that I can share this huge piece with my family. My wife Sarah didn’t grow up watching this sport, but since we’ve been together, she’s been to countless races, and seen the behind the scenes workings of the sport. Heck, I think she’s a bigger fan of it now than I am. She’s been doing some writing on the side for this website over the years and contributing great content. She turns on Race Day Live and watches every minute of the coverage on Saturdays. I know that we both felt a sense of pride that we were able to share these moments with our children. These are memories that will last a lifetime. So I highly recommend you check out the programs and take your own children to witness the sport that we all love from a unique perspective. I feel like next year I should surprise my dad with the podium experience to pay him back just a little bit for a lifetime of racing memories.
Thank you Feld Motorsports, Supercross, Sean Brennan, Chelsea, and Zoe for helping make this happen. Our family truly appreciated the entire journey. This sport has come a long way over the years and it’s exciting to see it grow so much over the years.
For more information and to sign-up for a Supercross VIP Experience please go to https://feldexperiences.com/pages/supercross-vip-experiences. Trust me when I say that it’s well worth it!
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