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Stories Revisited: A Season of Dominance-Dusty Klatt in 2006

By Mike McGill

Photos by James Lissimore

There have been plenty of dominant performances over the years in the Canadian National Motocross Championships. Ross Pederson went through his entire career, for heavens sake, suffering only a handful of defeats on Canadian soil, and Jean Sebastien-Roy steam-rolled his way to five consecutive National Championship titles in dominating fashion between the years 2001 to 2005. As recently as 2016, Davi Millsaps made his way to Canada and laid a complete beat down on the MX1 class, but it could be argued that no one has ever dominated our elite class in the way that Dusty Klatt did aboard his Blackfoot Honda sponsored CRF 450 back in 2006. Klatt took the overall at 6 of the 9 rounds that season and finished 2nd overall at another two. The only blemish on his record during that illustrious season came at Shadow Valley Raceway, in Morden, Manitoba when a DNF in the first moto caused him to miss the podium for the one and only time that year. What made Klatt’s feat even more impressive was the fact that he was racing against his Blackfoot teammate and Canadian MX legend Jean Sebastien Roy who, while in the twilight of his career, was still more than a worthy adversary for Klatt. It was truly an incredible season for the Campbell River, BC native, and one that deserves to be examined a little more closely. Who better to break it down than those who were directly involved.

Dusty Klatt – 4-Time Canadian National Motocross Champion

Joe Skidd – Former Racing Director – Blackfoot Motosports Racing Team

Andrew McLean – Former Lead Technician, Blackfoot Motosports Racing Team

Jean Sebastien Roy – 6-Time Canadian National Motocross Champion

Before we get into the 2006 season, however, it would be worthwhile to look at what Klatt was able to accomplish in the previous two seasons leading up to that epic year. In 2004 and 2005 the CMRC MX2 Championship was still a regional affair.

Dusty Klatt: In 2002, I wasn’t doing all that well in school. I was always riding my bike and going to the races. I was totally focused on racing and it was around that time that I decided that I wanted to try to make motocross my career. I told my Dad that I wanted to do it on my own. He had helped me a lot but I knew that if I was going to be successful I would have to do it on my own.

Joe Skidd: I think it was 2003 when Dusty really came on to our radar. I think it was at Walton, the final race of the season, and he had a great ride. He didn’t really have much support at all and I think he finished on the podium. He had nothing to work with, but clearly, he had talent.

Dusty Klatt: Yes, it was 2003 and I had a great ride at Walton. It was the last race of the year and my Dad, sister and I drove out there in our van and I ended up getting 2nd overall in the 250 class, which was the premiere class at the time. Right after the race the guys from Blackfoot came over and started talking to me.

JSR: I first noticed him back in ‘02 I think it was. He was riding a Kawi and doing well. At Blackfoot during those days we were always looking for up and coming guys, especially Canadians, and at the time there were not really a lot, maybe a half dozen guys. Colton, obviously, and Dusty were the two that really showed a lot of potential. He came to Blackfoot in ‘04 and you could tell he really wanted to make it happen. He had a lot of drive. I was close with Jason Mitchell (Blackfoot Manager) and he would often ask my opinion on things like that. We figured Dusty was the guy.

Joe Skidd: In 2004, the whole Blackfoot team was restructured. We took it to another level as a fully funded professional team. No more volunteers. We decided that we were going to hold tryouts to fill the open spots on the team. Dusty was one of the guys that we invited to tryout. We were looking at Dusty to ride the CR 250 in the MX1 class alongside JSR, initially. He really shone on that bike and he did very well at the tryouts. We were looking at everything, of course, not just their performance on the track but how they conducted themselves off the track as well. We were very impressed with Dusty, and initially we hired him to go directly to the big class. Unfortunately, our 250F guy, Turbo Reif got hurt right before the first race.

Dusty Klatt: I remember it well. It was May the 4th, 2004. When I got to Calgary and at the track that morning it was 2°c and snowing. Great, I thought, this is going to be messy. By lunch time, though, the temperature had gone up to 19°c. It was quite a jump in temperature. There were four of us at the tryout. Turbo Reif, Jeremy Lusk, Paul Perrinbos and myself. We were going to ride the 250F and the CR 250 two-stroke. They set us up to do a simulated race and of course I fell on the first lap. I acted as if it was a race though, so I got up and went for it. I never gave up and I think they liked that. My lap times on the two-stroke were only 1 second off JSR’s so they hired me to ride the 250 two-stroke full time. Then right before the first National at the Wastelands in Nanaimo, Turbo got hurt so they moved me down to the MX2 class to ride the 250F. So, I was full time in the MX2 class in the West, and when we went East I jumped up to the MX1 class, although I did ride some MX1 races in the West as well, usually just the second motos.

Joe Skidd: Dusty dominated the MX2 class in ‘04 and then he did the same in ‘05. He really adapted well to that bike and it showed. I know he rode a lot of BMX and I think that helped him, for sure. His style was just well suited to it and that class was no pushover. There was some serious competition in the MX2 class at that time, so it was not a fluke. He was the guy.

Dusty Klatt: A lot of skills that I learned on my BMX transferred to moto. A lot of the techniques like putting the bike into different spots and man-handling the bike. Racing evolves and changes over time. I was racing both classes in ‘04 and ‘05 and getting a lot of time in on the four-stroke 250F. Even in ‘05 I was riding the 450F all during the off-season but then I dropped down to the 250 for the Nationals. I’ve never really been much of a clutch rider, so the four-stroke really seemed to suit my style.

Joe Skidd: In 2006, the whole Blackfoot Team went four-stroke. JSR had to adapt to the four-stroke where as Dusty had it way more figured out, obviously from riding the 250F as much as he did or had. The 450 was not a nimble bike back in those days, it was more like a drag race from corner to corner to ride one effectively. Dusty obviously had a lot of ability and amazing throttle control. He seemed to be able to make a berm out of things that weren’t even there. It was like he had x-ray vision that year when it came to riding the tracks. The creativity he learned from riding the bicycle, along with his strength and creativity. It was like he saw things that weren’t even there.

Dusty Klatt: JSR was always the most physically ready every year to start the season. I just said to myself, how can I bring myself up to that level. As a twenty-one-year-old kid, what do I need to do to compete against him. So basically, I just studied his program when I got a chance and did pretty much what he did. I developed a routine: Breakfast, gym, track, BMX and then some road cycling or running, and I stuck to it. When the 2006 season started I was feeling confident. I felt good on the 450 and I felt really good physically. I knew I would never fade in a race.

JSR: Okay, first I want to give you a couple of excuses (laughter) and then I’m going to give Dusty all the credit that he deserves for that season. I was coming off five straight titles but age was starting to take over a little bit. I was 32 at the time and I was feeling a little beat up coming into that season. I had a crash and cracked a couple of ribs just before the season started, and I was transitioning to the four-stroke that year as well. I felt that I didn’t have good control of the front end of the bike, so I was losing the front end quite often. So, I had less than 40 days on the bike prior to the opening race of the season and I knew I was not as prepared as I had been in years past.

I probably could have pushed it and Honda would have let me stay on the two-stroke for another season, but they had stretched it, really, in letting me ride the CR250 in ‘05. Also, I had enjoyed riding the four-stroke indoors in 2002 so I said, “Why not, let’s try it.” Plus, I thought It would give me some motivation to try something new, but outdoors I did struggle with it. Even so, I did realize it was time for the change, though. Even in ‘05 when I would go to RC’s (Ricky Carmichael’s) to train, he would laugh and ask me why the heck I was still riding that smoker.

Dusty Klatt: My goal was to win. I knew JSR was going to be my biggest competition, but I started strong and just kept it going. At the first race in Ste-Julie I won my Saturday qualifier. In fact, I won every Saturday qualifier I was in that year. My lap times were usually always the quickest, even though JSR won that day. He went 1-1 I believe but I got 2nd in both motos and I knew I was going to be there. JSR was always going to be tough in the East, especially in Quebec, but I was confident that when the series went West I was going to do very well.

Joe Skidd: I wasn’t surprised at all at how well Dusty did in ‘06. He was always a quiet guy but very professional and a very hard worker. That was his year to stretch his wings. He had tons of confidence and you could tell he was really enjoying it. We really had a lot of fun that year. I know some people may not believe that because we always seemed very serious to the outsiders at Blackfoot, but we did have a lot of good times, and with the support that Dusty had it really was a perfect storm for him that season. I would put our bikes up against anything in the US Nationals. They were that good. I worked on the MotoGP Circuit for nine years for guys like Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi, so I believe I am qualified to make that statement.

Dusty Klatt: The team was very professional. Joe, Andrew, Dean (Thompson) and Jason (Mitchell) and I tried to reward their efforts by being as professional as I could. They taught me a lot about staying focused, even away from the racetrack, and they were all super hard-working. I was very fortunate to be on that team, for sure. They did everything right.

JSR: I won the first National but Dusty was right there. Mentally and physically he was well prepared and after that he just went on a roll. I admit I was a little bit surprised at how well he did, I knew that he was super strong on the 450 but that year we had not trained much together in the pre-season, so I wasn’t aware of just how fast he was going. He was a BC guy so he trained in California, whereas I would go down to Georgia in the winter. The only time we met up and did a bit of riding together was at the pre-season photo shoot for the team.

He was young, fast and aggressive. He was already a specialist on the four-stroke, and he was just charging harder and faster than anyone else. He got great starts, what seemed like every moto, and his corner speed was just amazing – way faster than me.

Joe Skidd: Dusty was definitely focused, and focus can cover a broad range of things. It was like nothing else mattered to him that year. He was able to tune everything else out and just concentrate on training, diet and his dirt bike. The rest of the world just kind of ceased to exist. So, it definitely wasn’t luck, that’s for sure. He was confident, he felt secure being part of that team and he was happy. He had all the ingredients for success.

JSR: Again, I have to say that I was a little surprised at how consistent Dusty was that year but the ball was really rolling for him. I would say that year was by far his best, as far as the 450 was concerned. He was just charging so hard; his sprint speed was amazing and he was giving it. He never rode defensively, he was so confident and strong. He was so big and strong that he really had the ability to move that big 450 around.

Dusty Klatt: My mental game was sharp that year. I was able to find lines that other people couldn’t, or if there wasn’t a good racing line I would just make a new one. That’s what comes with confidence. You know, not being afraid to go outside of the main line, I seem to remember doing that a countless number of times that year – finding those lines. That’s what I was known for. Plus, I was a bigger guy. Around 190 pounds at that time, so I had the ability to move the bike around more than some of the other guys. These are all the things I try to teach my students these days: How to find the best lines and move the bike around.

Joe Skidd: We wanted nothing but the best for Dusty, so we weren’t upset at all when he went south the following season. In fact, Jason Mitchell played a big part in putting that deal with Star Yamaha together. We wanted to give him the chance to show what he could do down there. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out all that well. The bikes were not near as good as what he was used to with Blackfoot.

Dusty Klatt: The plan always was to go down south full-time at some point. Jason helped me out a lot with that so after I won the MX1 Championship in ‘06 I got a great opportunity and signed with Star Racing Yamaha in the States. Bobby Regan at Star Racing gave me a great opportunity to race for his team. At the first race in Anaheim things were going well, I was running 4th in my qualifier, but I went down in a whoop section and my bike landed on top of me. I sustained some pretty severe burns to my back and shoulder. I kept trying to ride through it though. In fact, the very next week in Phoenix I was running 3rd for about half of the main when old J-Law came along and cleaned me out. That was a bummer and I struggled after that, with the injury and a few other things. As I mentioned, I was a bigger guy and most of the guys in that class are featherweights. They weigh in ay about 140 to 160 and at the time I was around 180 pounds so, on a 250F that makes a big difference. I think at the next race I dropped to like 17th or something, but I worked my way back up and by the last race in Seattle I got 8th. Pretty good but they were expecting more so after that we parted ways. It was pretty much a mutual agreement.

Andrew McLean: 2006 really was a great season for Dusty but there was a lot of other amazing stuff that he did, too. One of the most memorable for me was Moncton in 2009. Dusty fell on the first lap and by the time he got up and got going again he was like 1:20 behind the leaders. Colton (Facciotti) checked out, but by lap 2 Dusty was only 45 seconds behind the second-place guy, Paul Carpenter. Dusty was circulating about 7 seconds a lap faster than Carpenter. We kept throwing the pit board out early so Carpenter could see how fast Dusty was gaining. We were all having a great time with that. It took about 5 laps and Dusty blew by him so fast it practically sucked the graphics right off his bike. Next lap, Carpenter came by giving his mechanic a ‘what the eff just happened?’ gesture. It was awesome. That’s also the same race that Dusty uncorked the Klatt-a-pult. That was amazing. Off-the-hook airtime.

Dusty Klatt: Yeah, 2009 Moncton. First lap I was following Colt and we both almost went down over this little step-down. He was able to save it, though, and I didn’t. By the time I got going again I was about 30 seconds behind the last place guy. I’d looked at that jump the year before but never did it. It took some serious guts to do it back then. The second half of the jump was actually a double. The take-off was tall and steep, and the consequences for not making it were huge. It measured out at 129ft in total. They’ve messed with that jump way too much over the years, in my opinion. That’s a problem with this sport these days as far as I’m concerned. Don’t take a jump like that and start playing around with it until all the sudden beginners start thinking they can do it. It leads to way too many injuries.

Andrew McLean: He just never quit. That’s probably what I would say sticks out the most about Dusty. That and the fact that he’s one of the most naturally gifted riders I’ve ever seen on a bike. He always looked like he was part of the bike. Some of his best rides ever came at the Motocross of Nations in’ 04 in Lierop and again in ‘08 in England. He pulled holeshots and led laps in his qualifiers. He was a big part of the team in those years. But getting back to ’06, winning the Montreal Supercross that year was another big moment for him. Probably the biggest win of his career.

Dusty Klatt: That’s a tough call. It was a special win seeing as it was that one big event every year. It was probably my biggest winning race, and it was without a doubt my biggest earnings race. Winning the first 450 title in ‘06 was my biggest accomplishment. That was the biggest goal, and dream, growing up racing. It was hard-fought and I achieved it. Following it up with Montreal was the icing on the cake. It’s a close call but I’d say winning Montreal was amazing in front of the French crowd and beating all the other talent from out of the country that came to do the event.

Dusty Klatt went on to win another National MX1 Championship, this time for Blackfoot Yamaha in 2010. It was to be his fourth and final Canadian National Championship, and by 2013, at the age of 28, Dusty had already made the decision that it was to be his last season of competitive racing. He wanted to take a serious run at one more Championship and then go out on top. Unfortunately, a serious knee injury ended his season before it really got started, which put him into a slightly earlier retirement than he had planned.

These days Dusty lives and works as a welder in his hometown of Campbell River, BC. While he hasn’t raced a dirt bike in quite some time, he stays involved in the sport by working as an instructor for a selected group of young racers. He has maintained a great relationship with his old employers, and the Husqvarna he rides is compliments of Blackfoot Direct. He admits that some days he thinks about attempting a comeback and that he misses the racing scene. There’s no doubt that he still has the talent and he’s only 33. For now, however, he cherishes the time he spends hanging out with his son, Aaro, and working with his young students.

Dusty Klatt was one of the all-time greats of Canadian moto and his 2006 season will certainly go down in the books as one of the finest ever. Another colourful chapter in the history of Canadian Motocross.

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