By Danny Brault

It was a big weekend in St. Louis for Round 7 of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series, with the RC, Stewart, Reed and Tedesco happenings in the Supercross class. But there was also another happening in the Supercross Lites class that probably went unnoticed by every fan in the Edward Jones Dome, except for a small group of Canadians who were scattered throughout the stadium; it was Blackfoot Honda Fox Racing’s Dusty Klatt’s 13^th in his first ever AMA supercross race! We caught up with Klatt soon after Chad Reed took his first Supercross win of the 2006 season, to find out his feelings on his first supercross.

RXC: Great ride tonight, Dusty!

Dusty Klatt: Thanks a lot.

So, how do you think things went for your first AMA supercross race?

Good. I didn’t really expect a whole lot from myself; I just wanted to … whatever happened, happened. I mean, I didn’t really say, ‘I’m going to go out there and get top 5.’ It felt good to get one under my belt and get some of the butterflies out of me, for sure.

Heading into the race, being around all of the factory semis and everything, were you feeling nervous at all?

I wasn’t really too nervous until the actual race time. But, I probably pissed about 20 times today, so …. Other than that, it probably had a lot do with butterflies and stuff like that, nerves. I felt good all day long, except for my first heat during the day, it wasn’t that great. I felt good in my qualifier and then made it into the main. In the main I felt good, until the last three laps I started to die down a little bit; the track was getting rutty and I just tried to ride consistent.

Did it help having JSR here this weekend?

Yeah, you know, it was good to have him here giving pointers and stuff like that. It always nice to know a few things or what you could do different. A lot of it I kind of knew; it’s good to go out and learn the track as fast as you can because they don’t have Friday practice anymore, so you just kind of got to jump everything right off the bat.

You must have been happy to get in through your night qualifier without having to go to the LCQ.

Yeah it was. There is a lot of riding during the day, so it gave me a chance to rest a little. And I heard that if you’re top 20 in points, you don’t have to qualify through the day. If so, that would be good; next weekend I can some energy and go straight to the night show. I guess there is a lot of sitting time too, though, but whatever, either way ….

How are you feeling now that you have one under your belt?

Good. I felt like I could have done a little better; I felt I kind of just rode it out near the end. I pushed fairly hard for the first bit, but I just got to get used to racing with everyone. I need to get into that mood a little more; I haven’t raced since that last national, so … it’s been awhile. It felt good to make it through the weekend injury-free and making into the main was even better.

You seem pretty happy ….

I am. I mean, I’m not jumping up and down. I was just glad I made it into the main and I honestly didn’t care what I got in the main. It was good though, I was able to get a 13^th and I didn’t think I was that far up.

Thanks, Dusty. Good luck next weekend in Atlanta.

Thank you.