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• Supercross

Supercross rider Scott Metz, of Brookville, Ind., at the Atlanta Supercross. (Photo by Frank Hoppen)

In another interview, from another year, Supercross rider Scott Metz seems like what you'd expect from a dirt bike rider.

Favorite movie? "The Longest Yard."

Favorite book? "Racer X."

Favorite cartoon character? Butthead, he he he.

Favorite actress? Jenna Jameson.

Next-favorite sport? Fighting.

You get the picture. Metz answers like an honorary adolescent, like a 28-year-old who ... well ... who rides bikes for a living.

But the Brookville resident, who will compete on his Yamaha 450 in the March 1 Supercross event at the RCA Dome, is more of an adult than you would expect a daredevil petrol-head to be. He isn't high on highly oxygenated fuel. He is a worker.

Metz has been on the Supercross circuit maybe eight years, competing in roughly a dozen pro events a year, and maybe 25 local races on top of that. But he also works as a mason, is going to school for computer-aided drafting, and has a 2-year-old son named Chase.

Having crashed out of contention in a Supercross event at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta last weekend, Metz is a realist about his chances of making it in the sport long-term, or even making it work this weekend in Indianapolis.

"Only the top guys can make a living at it," Metz said. "But I love the competition."

He likes the blocking, the retaliation. There's nothing worse, he said, than when some guy gets the lead and checks out. The battle is where it's at. And it is battle. Metz has suffered two knee surgeries, shoulder surgery and assorted breaks, cuts and bruises (both internal and external). But his recitation of the list is characteristically understated.

"I broke my back last year," he said. "It hurt."

He competes in a sport designed to throw obstacles in your way -- double jumps, triple jumps, loops, sand corners, banked corners, flat corners, ruts. This is not the natural track of Motocross.

Getting to the main race isn't a guarantee, either. The crowds come to watch the racing at night, but before that can happen, Metz has to win his way through mid-afternoon practice heats that the public doesn't see. Of 75 starters, they take the top 40 time-trial racers. Then there are more heats and qualifiers, until 25 riders emerge for a 25-lap race.

Last weekend, Metz washed out on a sandy corner in one heat, and got tangled up with a crashed bike in the other. But he is stoic about his fate then and now, about not quite making the main race.

"It just happens. Tough break, but ..." he said, his voice running out of gas. "Yeah, I gotta keep it on two wheels. And just look forward."