TRUE GRIT

Brett Metcalfe will go down in Australian motocross and supercross history as the quiet achiever with a list of accomplishments that most could only dream of.

Hailing from the country town of Mannum in South Australia, Brett cut his teeth on the local race scene, winning countless state championships along with numerous Australian Junior titles before heading off to the world stage at just 17 years of age.

Since leaving Australia, Metcalfe has achieved a hell of a lot. With a host of AMA supercross podium results to his name, along with an American Motocross 450 overall round win, he's the only Australian rider along with Chad Reed to have done this.

Add in a 450 championship runner-up finish to his list of accomplishments, a Canadian MX nationals title, being part of Australia’s best ever MXoN team that finished on the podium in 2011, and spending time as teammates to both Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey over the years, and Metty’s racing life makes for one heck of a story.

It's also a story that is not yet over, with Metty heading home for 2018 to contest this year’s MX Nationals as Honda’s front man. With his preseason kicking off here in Australia, we took the chance to speak to him about his wonderful career to date.

Take us back to the beginning. Where did your passion for riding dirtbikes start?

Really, I got started back when I was four years old, riding on a Pee Wee which my older brother, Shane, had ridden before me.

Like most families, we got into motocross via Mum and Dad. Dad used to ride and was a massive motorcycle enthusiast and still is to this day, which is pretty cool.

I was lucky enough to be introduced into the sport and as anyone who rides motorcycles knows, it is a tough thing to stop once you have started.

How much success did you have as a junior?

State titles — to be honest, I wouldn’t really know! But Aussie titles, I think I won six junior titles.

Then in my first year of seniors I won the Thumpernats title in the Pro 400 class and that was about it. I really only raced the one year here after juniors before heading overseas.

As you said, you only raced one year here in Australia as a senior rider. Was it always your plan to head overseas?

It was always my plan to head overseas as soon as possible. Even back when I was