Troy Dog
Notice that this column now has a sponsor? That’s right! Troy Dog joined the Blu Cru and you should too! I have one in my garage right now and I can’t wait to go shred it! Thank you to Yamaha for believing in my ELITE columns on this dirt bike website enough to sponsor me. What a dream come true! BTW: Have you seen the all-new YZ450F? OH. MY. GOODNESS. I can’t wait to test that bad boy.
Well, he did it! Ken Roczen has signed with HEP Suzuki! Do you know what that means? It means that now me and Kenny are teammates. When I signed my lifetime contract with HEP Suzuki two years ago, I assumed the team would be vying for a championship in no time, but now it’s actually a reality. Kenny joining this team is a great idea despite what all the naysayers out there have to say. The staff over on that team has grown since it started in 2017 and they are in fact a legit team. Brandon Hartranft (get well soon) finished eighth overall in Monster Energy Supercross in 2022. If you are top ten in the series, then you are legit as a team. You can’t luck into the top ten.
It seems like I’ve been correcting a lot of people on Twitter over the last year. You’ve got the classic go to comments, “Suzuki: we just kick it”, “It’s the same bike since 2009”, and my favorite “No one is going to win on that bike,”. When I see these comments it makes me shake my head and then I have to spit some facts.
I’m currently in a massive debate with 1990 125 Eastern Regional Champion Denny Stephenson about this in our group chat. Maybe those put downs aren’t word for word, but that’s the gist of what I’m reading in the comments. I’ve known HEP Motorsports Team Principal Dustin Pipes since he was an amateur rider chasing the Pro Sport Classes in 2010. Ever since I’ve known him he has been on a Suzuki. No one, besides maybe Barry Carsten, would know the bike better than him. For eight years, Pipes chased his dream as a professional racer and then transferred over to his role with HEP after helping start the team.
This plan to build this once smaller budget team into an elite powerhouse in the sport has been in the works since the beginning. The HEP team has gotten Suzuki support, invested in top team personnel, and now with Ken Roczen on board, all of the pieces are coming together to make 2023 a year they will never forget. For those of you doubting the resources, or bike, it’s not too late to bite your tongue or take back your remarks. Roczen is a rider you never want to doubt. He can and will win on the HEP Suzuki. He believes it and that’s a big reason why he signed with the team. Roczen has deep ties to Suzuki all the way back to when he was an amateur and this homecoming is one of if not the best storylines as we head into 2023 Supercross.
So the next time you want to comment “Slowzuki” on a post, just think a little harder about it. He’s going to make sure you eat those words. Kenny has so much talent on a dirt bike and he always will be a contender for a win whenever he lines up to a race. Maybe we all look at this as how lucky we are to witness his skills on a dirt bike? Instead of just finding ways to make fun of him for riding a perfectly good motorcycle on an incredible team like HEP Motorsports.
Main image: Suzuki
