Campbell River’s Dusty Klatt stepped out of his teammate Colton Facciotti’s shadow in Round 7 of the Monster Energy Motocross Nationals in Moncton, NB on Sunday with an impressive double-heat victory.
Facciotti, coming off a clean sweep at Round 6 in Ste-Julie, QC, stayed in the mix to take second overall on the strength of 2-2 heats.
Facciotti snared the first MX1 heat holeshot with on his heels Willard, Klatt, Jared Allison, Bobby Kiniry and Teddy Maier.
Ten minutes into the heat Facciotti, making a rare mistake, went down and handed the lead to Klatt on a silver platter. Kiniry, who was running third at the time, took over second place but found himself looking at a lot of real estate between himself and Klatt.
Meanwhile, Facciotti managed to remount in third place, more than 20 seconds behind Klatt.
Charging hard in a bid to reclaim the lead, Facciotti took over second place from Kiniry just before the halfway point.
Even though he shaved Klatt’s huge lead down to about five seconds by the end of the heat, Facciotti had to settle for runner-up when the checkered flag signalled the end of the race.
Klatt’s and Facciotti’s pace up front was so intense they gapped third place finisher Matt Goerke by about 15 seconds and lapped up to eighth place by the time the heat came to an end.
The second heat holeshot went to PJ Stratton, but with the likes of Klatt, Facciotti, Kiniry, and Maier breathing down his neck he quickly disappeared from the top-five.
Klatt was the first to pass Stratton and once in the lead, the defending champ kept it all the way to the checkered, recording his best heat of the season in the process and scoring his third heat win of the season as well as his first overall.
MX1 Overall – Round 7
1. Dusty Klatt (Yamaha) 1-1
2. Colton Facciotti (Yamaha) 2-2
3. Teddy Maier (Kawasaki) 5-3
MX1 Points after 7 Rounds
1. Colton Facciotti 335
2. Dusty Klatt 298
3. Teddy Maier 236
