Motul Pirelli Suzuki’s Todd Waters is the highest rating Australian in the Monster Energy MX Nationals following a breakout 2012 season, finishing second overall in the premier MX1 ranks to experienced international Josh Coppins.

At just 21 years of age, Waters has a massive future ahead of him in the sport, becoming hot property in the silly season speculation ahead of next season.

First things first though, Waters will represent Australia in the FIM Motocross of Nations later this month at Lommel in Belgium, before entering the Australian Supercross Championships mid-October.

It’s an exciting time in the career of the Gold Coast-based revelation, and MotoOnline.com.au called him up earlier today to see how he’s handling the recent run of success.

Congratulations on a great season, it’s been a really positive year for you as part of Motul Pirelli Suzuki. Are you happy with second in the championship, upon reflection?

Yeah, well I guess from a career point of view it was definitely a step forward, but being so close to winning the championship it was a little disappointing to get second.

You know, [Suzuki Australia general manager] Perry [Morison] was happy with Coops and I on the podium – I had a pretty solid year only missing one podium. There are a lot of positives and a lot that we can improve on, so I think it’s been good.

You sat out much of last year through injury, but when you did come back you were able to get a couple of podiums to finish the season. Considering that, were you quietly confident that you could get the results you have in 2012?

Well coming into this season I finished off last year with two podiums, and I just thought I can be the guy who gets on the podium every single time and hopefully takes the championship.

It’s kinda what I worked on, holding myself back a lot of the time to get points and make sure I got on the podium each time. So yeah, through my injuries I have learned a lot and it’s made me a more consistent rider.

This year was pretty solid, normally getting nine out of 10 podiums will win you a championship. Unfortunately it didn’t this year, but we’ve got next year and hopefully I can come out one better.

I know that you have a lot of respect for Josh Coppins and you’ve said previously that you learned a lot from racing with him. It was a pretty good rivalry you two had this season, wasn’t it?

Josh is good to race with, pretty level headed and he’s got a lot of experience. He’s been there and done it, not a guy who tries to rub it in your face or anything. I enjoyed racing with Josh, learned a lot from him, like line selection and that sort of stuff.

It was cool racing with him, a guy at such an elite level, so to go out of the last round winning it, being able to say I raced Josh before he retired is pretty cool.

After such a good season, your name has been mentioned a lot in the silly season speculation. Do you have any news on that front? Do you know what you will be doing in 2013 yet?

Yeah, look I’ve been trying to keep it low key just because I’ve been trying to concentrate on the des Nations. I’ve definitely got a few things in the pipeline at the moment, I’ve spoken to Suzuki and they are working to put something together, plus there are a few other brands.

It’s going to be interesting to see what direction we go in, but at the moment my sole focus is the des Nations. Hopefully we can do well over there… we’ll just wait and see what happens.

You mentioned the MXoN, which is obviously a massive thing for your career to be selected for Team Australia. Going into Lommel, you must be pretty excited. It’s a big one and will no doubt be hard, but it’s a big step and you and for your career.

It’s going to be massive, one of the biggest things in my career. You know, any international race is massive, but just to be able to go over there and put my name out there in front of these international riders and team managers is pretty cool.

I’ve got nothing to lose, these guys might have heard of me but have never seen me ride before, so all I can do is go out and do the best that I can. I need to get a bit of experience and hopefully I can end up racing overseas a lot more in the future.

Okay well thank you, best of luck over there and we look forward to it mate!

Yeah cheers, thanks for that.