The Motul Pirelli Suzuki team put together a stellar 2012 Monster Energy MX Nationals series, with their MX1 contenders Todd Waters and Cody Cooper finishing second and third in the premier class standings.

Coming off such a strong season, Waters and his team will now head over to Belgium for the 2012 Motocross of Nations, where he will compete for Australia in his maiden visit to the event.

MotoOnline.com.au caught up with team manager Jay Foreman to speak to him about the great season so far, their Motocross of Nations plans and the upcoming Australia Supercross Championships.

Jay Foreman and Todd Waters came close to bringing home the 2012 MX Nationals MX1 title. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Firstly, congratulations on a great 2012 MX Nationals series, you came so close to clinching the MX1 title with Todd Waters. You still must be very proud with your team and riders’ efforts?

Yeah it was awesome… awesome. Todd fit in good, worked hard and we made the bike better for him, so it was good. And it even helped Cody, his results were better also.

How did you and your approach the final rounds of the series with Waters in the title hunt, did you do anything different to the normal routine?

We kept things the same. We knew we had to win races, and we won some races, but Josh [Coppins] would bounce back and win the next one, you know?

He did an awesome job and kept bouncing back, every time we got a bit of a roll on, he’d come back at us. It was tough, but it was a really good championship.

Coming away with a Todd Waters and Cody Cooper, 2-3 finish in the MX1 championship, you must have been satisfied with that?

Yeah I was, of course you want to win, but to come second and third is just awesome. We are racing against a lot of other professional riders and teams, and to get both guys on the podium it was really good.

Foreman has taken Waters under his wing in a bid to conquer the sands of Lommel. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

With Todd heading over for the MXoN in Belgium, how are the preparations going so far, and what is the planned schedule for the event?

Since Coolum Todd has stayed here with me in Newcastle, and he’s been riding sand three to four times a week. And we’ve also done a little bit of supercross testing, we spent a couple days on a supercross track.

He has been training hard and working hard at it and he leaves tomorrow (Thursday) and I leave on Sunday.

I’ll turn up Monday and we’ll meet the Suzuki factory race team, I’ve got a 450 works bike for him, and we will ride Tuesday, Wednesday.

Thursday we have tech inspection, then we will race Saturday and Sunday before heading back home Monday, so it’s pretty full on.

With the upcoming Australian Supercross Championship schedule coming up fast, how will you juggle the MXoN and your supercross preparations?

Yeah, it’s hard work I’ll tell you. We just wanted to get a base and get a starting point. He’s really happy with what we have got and said the bike feels really good, really balanced.

So it’s just going to be time once we get back, just time on the bike a and try get it down.

Finally, what are you expecting from your riders entering all-new upcoming Australian Supercross Championships?

I’ve got Todd in Pro Open and Steven Clarke in the Lites class for supercross. It’s going to be tough and the other guys have been practicing supercross now for a couple of weeks and we’ve been doing motos.

But it’ll be fine, Todd is really adaptable and I’ve got faith in him. I think we can come back, get stuck into it and get it done.