Klatt, JSR continue domination

From CMRC Racing

NANAIMO, BC -- Compared to a dreary and wet opening round last weekend, the weather gods smiled on round 2 of the CMRC Canadian Motocross Championships, held yesterday in Nanaimo, BC. Although it rained on Saturday, Sunday was spared the wet stuff and a relatively cool temperature of 15C prevailed.

For Dusty Klatt and Jean Sebastien Roy, however, the weather and track conditions were as irrelevant as they had been at Mission Raceway one week ago. The Team Honda Canada Blackfoot Fox Racing riders continued where they left off at round 1 by winning their respective classes. Although the mighty JSR didn’t claim his MX1 overall with a repeat clean sweep of the motos, Klatt, riding his home track did just that in MX2 West.

In the first MX2 moto, Richmond Racing/Kawasaki Canada's Teddy Maier took the holeshot with Factory Yamaha's Kyle Beaton in tow. It took Klatt about eight minutes to stick a pass on Beaton and Maier. Once in the lead, Klatt started distancing himself from Maier and the rest of the field. By the end of the moto, the Campbell River, BC resident had accumulated a 30-second gap over Maier.

In moto two, Klatt took over the lead from Pacific Yamaha's Shane Bess by the end of the second lap and checked out. Beaton, in turn, had some work to do in this moto. At the halfway mark, the Surrey, BC native was in eighth place, battling with the likes of Richmond's Colton Facciotti and Jeff Northrop, Bess and Morgan Racing Yamaha's Eric Vallejo. By the end of the moto Beaton had installed himself in fourth place, which was good enough to give him third overall for the day. Second overall, Maier followed Klatt across the finish line 20 seconds later.

Rounding out the top five were Northrop, fourth on the strength of 5-3 motos and Bess, who carded fifth with 4-5 motos.

In MX1, Morgan Racing Yamaha's Blair Morgan, still recovering from a late season snocross injury holeshotted ahead of Roy and Richmond Racing Kawasaki's Evan Laughridge. In no time at all, however, Roy took over the lead from Morgan, who eventually finished the moto in 12th place.

Klatt, also on the line for the MX1 confrontation, turned a seventh place start into second place within a few laps. He chased down Roy and to the noisy approval of his hometown fans passed the defending champ around the halfway mark. At the checkers, Klatt had an eight-second lead on his Blackfoot Honda teammate.

Roy, in turn, gapped third place Laughridge by nearly a full minute, giving an indication of the blistering pace set by the Honda duo.

The second moto was red flagged nine minutes after the gate dropped. In the restart, Morgan Racing Yamaha's Craig Decker grabbed the holeshot, only to be passed by JSR. The Californian managed to hang on to second place for the remainder of the moto.

Klatt, who by the final race of the day had won three back to back motos, settled for eighth at the checkered. Coupled with his first moto victory, however, he joined overall winner Roy on the podium in third spot. Laughridge, meanwhile, lost the battle for third place to Blackfoot's Damon Huffman, but Laughridge's fourth was sufficient to see him finish runner-up for the day. Huffman, with 7-3 motos carded fourth overall, while Team Suzuki/OTSSF Motorsports Keith Johnson cemented fifth with 4-5 motos.

Swanson Yamaha Racing's Josh Demuth, who wasn't scheduled to join the National MX1 tour until round 3, surprised everyone by lining up behind the gate at The Wastelands. The two-time U.S. National Arenacross Champion, coming off severe wrist injuries nailed down an impressive sixth overall on the strength of 5-7 motos.