Sunday’s fifth round of the 2019 Pirelli MX Nationals at Murray Bridge in South Australia saw Todd Waters notch his second overall victory of the season, putting a difficult round four on Saturday behind him to come out on top. MotoOnline.com.au tracked down the DPH Motorsport Husqvarna rider to gather his thoughts from the weekend.

Image: Foremost Media.

An excellent day coming out with the overall win, and a pretty strong performance in that final moto also…

Yeah, today was much better. I struggled quite a bit yesterday just with myself – I was fighting the bike and the track. I couldn’t get into my groove, and today I knew I had to go put it on in qualifying for Superpole, and I missed out on Superpole by a hundredth of a second to Dean [Ferris], so I knew I was on pace. I struggled with my starts today – I kept making mistakes, so I’m quite pissed off about that. The last one I got a good start, and then I was able to ride my own race, which was nice.

With the back to back days of racing, how do you reset your mind after having an off-day on Saturday, also considering you’d still be feeling the effects from the day prior?

My fitness is fine – I could do another day of riding tomorrow. That’s no problem, it’s just mental for me – I was struggling and I knew it, I just couldn’t change that switch. I needed to go home, write the day off and wake up in a better mood. It sort of starts off with qualifying for me and how I feel on the bike – I need to attack it and get the feel straight up. Yesterday I stuffed around a bit too much and just didn’t gel with the track, but I made some changes to the bikes which helped me today. There were little bits and pieces that all added up for us today.

Image: Foremost Media.

How valuable is it to enter the break with a win behind you?

We all just want to win, so I guess it gives a little bit of confidence. The break for me is quite important, I want to push and try and lift my game again. I’m pretty focused on this break – I think a lot of guys relax, but you kind of get lost because it’s such a long break. I’m going to hit it hard and see if we can find some more speed.

You mentioned on the podium you’ll be heading to America, exactly what races will you be hitting over there?

I’ll be racing the first three outdoor championship races. It just works well with our break, and it’s all in California and super easy to get to. I’m doing it with my Kiwi mate Cody Cooper, so it should be fun and I’m looking forward to it. We’re getting a big camper, and Coops’ has a van as well, so we’re just going to pit up at the races. It’s pretty relaxed, and 450s are so competitive now, especially the Husqvarna – they have such strong engines – so I don’t need to worry about competing with the factory teams on that side of things. I’ll have the same bike as I have here, so I’ll take all my stuff over there. Straight up I’ll be comfortable and know the thing, instead of getting on a different bike.

Is there an expectation you have over there? Or is more about what you said before in levelling up for the second half of the season?

It’s obviously going to be disappointing if I’m outside of the top 10, and if I’m in it, that will be positive. I have my own expectations, and it’s something I sort of don’t share because people might laugh at me. I’m confident, I’ve been training hard and I’m prepared well. It’s obviously not easy going to a different country and racing, but I’ve got all my stuff. It’s hard because I haven’t raced those guys in the outdoors, so I don’t know where I stack up against them.