One rider we’re really looking forward to watching progress in 2012 is Motul Pirelli Suzuki’s new signing, Todd Waters. The Queenslander has shown he can race with the best of them in recent years, however a new home at Suzuki may just be what he needs to do it on a consistent basis.

Waters will partner Kiwi Cody Cooper at Motul Pirelli Suzuki for this season in the Pro Open class, so we thought we’d give him a quick call to see how it’s all coming together for him a month out from round one of the Australian Motocross Championships.

Todd Waters has signed with Motul Pirelli Suzuki for the 2012 season.

First up Todd, how are you settling in at Suzuki so far?

Yeah, good. I have really enjoyed the bike so far and we’re moving forward with the suspension. We’ve just got to do a little bit of fine-tuning on the tracks we’ll be racing on, but yeah, it’s all going good.

You’ve been signed to Suzuki for a little while now, so when did you first ride the RM-Z450?

I went down and tested the bike before supercross, and then they gave me my own bike after the Brisbane round. I took that home and rode over Christmas, so I’ve had a fair bit of time on it now.

You went over to New Zealand and did the first round at Timaru, but that ended early. Tell us what happened there?

Yeah, that was a bit of a bummer. We simply went there just to test the bike, really, obviously doing a bit of racing and trying to get quick. In the first moto the forks I was using were a little stiff and it pounded me, so I got big arm-pump.

I ended up coming fifth after tangling in the first turn with Ben [Townley]. In the next race I got up into third and was trying to catch [Josh] Coppins, then yeah, jumped on the side of the track and just ate it. That was a bit disappointing, because it wasn’t that I was pushing too hard or anything, I just made a little error.

That injured my back a little bit, so I had to have two weeks off, and just started riding again now.

Waters, seen here last year with new team boss Jay Foreman, has had plenty of time aboard the RM-Z450.

You came back at the end of the nationals last year and did really well despite being out injured for much of the season, so where’s your confidence at heading into 2012?

Well, I’ve got mixed thoughts on it all. I’m fairly confident with how I’m riding I guess, but I just want to get some racing under my belt. There are a lot of good riders in the field this year, it’s packed, so it will be good racing.

Do you feel as though you’re flying in under the radar a little bit, considering the international line-up and Jay Marmont’s team switch?

Yeah, well there are a lot of high profile riders this year. I’m definitely flying under the radar, but I’m just hoping that I can get some good starts and have some good races. It’s a deep field, so I guess to get moto wins would be pretty good against Townley and those kind of guys.

We’ve got a month to go before round one now, so what are your plans from now until when the gates drop at Conondale?

Like you said, it’s about a month until the first round and we have a launch coming up at Appin next Wednesday. We’ll be doing some testing there and then we’ll probably go do some more testing at Coonabarabran and hopefully Moree.

In between there I want to fit in some Sunshine State series races, plus I’ll probably head over for the last round of the New Zealand series at Taupo. It’s going to be a pretty packed couple of weeks, so it should be good.