Catching Up With…Brett Metcalfe

bayodome

• June 12 2009
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• 6 comments

The Geico Powersports/Honda team is, without a doubt, a powerhouse team this year in the Outdoor Nationals.  Rookies, Justin Barcia and Blake Wharton, have been nothing but impressive in their first full race season, Trey Canard is maturing into the scary fast front runner that many expected him to become, and Daniel Reardon, now aboard the 450, just had the best finish of his US career with a third place in the second moto at Freestone.  Last, but certainly not least, is Brett Metlcalfe on the number 24 machine.  Metty is coming off of an injury suffered at the beginning of the Supercross and is definitely a 250 Class championship contender.

Do you mind breaking down Freestone for us?

Practice went well.  I had seventh gate pick which was ok.  In the first moto I got a great start and came out second right behind Trey (Canard).  During the first lap I was really aggressive like I normally am (laughs), so I got passed; I think Pourcel got in front of me and I ended up running in third for a long time, then Trey fell and Dungey came through.  I don’t know, I was just putting in laps for most of the moto and I was feeling pretty good.  With just a couple of laps to go, Trey started coming up on me and made a move.  I ended up finishing fourth in the moto, and I feel like I am starting to ride better and the way that I feel I can.  I have been trying to give myself time just to get better and it’s happening so I was happy with fourth in first moto.  In the second moto, I just didn’t get the start, I think I was somewhere around tenth but I felt awesome out there.  We made a couple changes with the bike, and I feel like that is what I always wanted to happen with the bike.  It felt good, I was aggressive, picking a guy off every lap.  I got up to about fifth and Searle was right in front of me and I wanted to just keep going and not lose any of that momentum.

I kind of had a pass set up, and we came into a turn together. He had the inside and both of our lines came together.  (Laughs) I tried to make it happen and railed the outside.  He got to the inside first and I hit him and, man, I basically just ghosted the bike (laughs).  So that was a bummer dude.  It was a really stupid mistake but I just didn’t want to get held up.  I wanted to make the move I saw an opportunity, although it was very risky, and I paid the price.  I dropped back to about 10th or so, had to pass a few guys I had already passed before, and made it back up to seventh.
Although you didn’t get the finishes you were hoping for, does it make a difference knowing that you were pretty much always moving forward for encouragement going into Mt. Morris?

For sure.  When I go home and study how this race worked out I’ll probably feel pretty good about it.  Right now I am just so disappointed with that second moto mistake.  But that was just one mistake for the whole day and otherwise it went good.  What I want to have happen right now is just for my riding to improve.  Today I felt like my riding got better.  The first couple of rounds I felt like I had some good results considering that I was coming off of the injured list and I have steadily been improving and getting close to where I want to be.

Well, that’s just how long it took.  It wasn’t so much my collarbone, but my wrist.  It took nearly three months for it to heal.  Even today, it hurt a couple of times while I was out there.  My hand even came off of the bars at one point.  It’s not 100 percent but its good enough and I can ride fine.  I am just trying to improve as fast as I can without making big mistake without pushing too hard.  I just want to keep racking up good rides.

The track here today was pretty rough, as was Glen Helen.  One would imagine that the rougher the track, the harder it is on an injury, especially a healing wrist.

Well the good thing about having a rough track is that the pace really slows down.  The intensity doesn’t slow down but you can’t ride as fast as when it is smooth and I prefer that.  Having a track like today suited me well.  The way all of the tracks have been so far is really good, but Glen Helen was definitely a killer for my wrist; it really hurt.  Compared to Glen Helen, these last two races have been fine for my wrist.

It hurts just looking at Glen Helen!  For this year, although a lot of the top 250 riders from last year have moved up to the 450’s this season, a lot of new players have come into the mix.  There are the several European and GP riders who made the jump over here, plus a lot of rookies, such as Justin Barcia and Blake Wharton who have already had some impressive results.  Has there been an adjustment for you riding against these new guys?  The GP guys have a different way of pacing themselves, while the rookies tend to be very aggressive right of the bat.

How the GP guys ride is how I have ridden during my career here in the states, so having them here makes it a little tougher.  That was my angle, and now there are four guys coming in with the same angle (laughs).  But it still comes down to who is going to ride the best each day.  Pourcel and Dungey are both just riding really good right now, no matter what angle the come in from;  they are riding really good and probably better than anyone else.  I am just looking at that, not what the Euro guys are doing or what Barcia or Blake are coming up with; I just have to get better myself and improve.  Having these young guys on my team is cool.  It helps me to check where my speed is because they are all going blazingly fast, especially in practice.  So it’s good for me to have the young guys around and pick up a little bit from them but then do my own thing during while I am racing.