Roy, Klatt master rain

From CMRC

MISSION, BC -- Under continuously rainy skies and muddy track conditions, Dusty Klatt and Jean Sebastien Roy crushed the competition at Round 1 of the CMRC Canadian Motocross Championships in Mission, BC yesterday.

The Team Honda Canada Blackfoot Fox Racing duo left no doubt they will be the riders to beat as they defend their titles in the MX2 West and MX1, respectively. In a rerun of last year’s season opener, Klatt and Roy put on a clinic that saw them finish the day with impressive clean sweeps.

After the gate dropped for the first MX2 West moto, Richmond Racing/Kawasaki’s Colton Facciotti grabbed the holeshot with Yamaha Motor Canada’s Kyle Beaton in tow. While Beaton wasted little time taking over the lead from Facciotti, Klatt had to knife his way from a sixth place start to connect with the frontrunners. By the end of lap 2, the Blackfoot ace was in second place; three laps later he had command of the lead.

Once at the head of the pack, Klatt simply checked out. Despite the atrocious track conditions and riding without goggles because he had no tear-offs left 10 minutes into the moto, Klatt finished with a 28-second margin over second place Beaton.

Surrey, BC’s Beaton, whose fire couldn’t be extinguished by the rain, grabbed the second moto holeshot but he was passed for the lead by Klatt on lap 2. Facciotti, who crashed in the first moto to finish off the podium, rebounded in the second to stay in the mix and follow Beaton to the flag in third place.

As in the first moto, Klatt had to once more toss his goggles. That didn’t prevent him, however, from lapping up to third place and putting a 56-second gap on Beaton by the end of the race.

“It was brutal out there today, especially riding a good deal of both motos without goggles. The mud and rain just chewed my eyes, but that made winning so much sweeter. It was a tough race for everybody,” said Klatt.

Like Klatt, a lot of the other riders ran out of tear-offs and had to toss their goggles, making for extremely challenging racing conditions in the mud and rain. Track conditions were so bad in places, some riders saw their bikes sink into the slime all the way to the hubs of their wheels.

In both MX1 motos, Roy's starts were not the best but his pace was so much faster than the frontrunners, it was obvious it was only a matter of time before he would take control. In the first moto, coming from an eighth place start, he took the lead from Yamaha Motor Canada mounted Doug DeHaan on lap 4. Like his Blackfoot teammate Klatt in MX2, Roy basically waved the rest of the field goodbye. In typical JSR fashion, he pulled away lap after lap to greet the checkered flag 45 seconds ahead of an impressive riding DeHaan.

Morgan Racing Suzuki’s Craig Decker challenged DeHaan on a number of occasions but had to settle for third at the finish line.

The start of moto two was delayed due to track repairs. When the gate finally dropped, Roy had to make good on a 12th place start. No problem for the Quebecer, however. In short order he passed OTSFF Suzuki’s Gavin Gracyk for the lead and never looked back. When all was said and done JSR crossed the finish line 32 seconds ahead of OTSFF Suzuki’s Keith Johnson, who carded second overall on the strength of 6-2 motos. Decker, meanwhile, completed the podium thanks to 3-7 motos.

The big surprise of the weekend was DeHaan, his factory Yamaha teammate Simon Homans and Richmond Kawasaki’s Ryan Lockhart. Although DeHaan was unable to equal his first moto second place finish, his 10th place in the second moto was good enough for fourth overall. Homans, who finished ninth in moto one, carded a noteworthy third in the second moto, grabbing fifth overall for the day. Lockhart, meanwhile, carded sixth overall on the strength of 4-8 motos.