KTM Australia’s new recruit Todd Waters is in a positive mood following his race debut aboard the 450 SX-F at New Zealand’s Woodville GP on Sunday.

Waters finished a solid third in the opening moto despite having to pit with a vision problem, before finishing in that same position behind Kiwis Ben Townley and Cody Cooper in moto two.

Waters raced to second in the feature race, but a crash in the third and final moto bumped him back to sixth overall for the weekend.

It was an inspiring start for the 22-year-old Queenslander, despite racing what was a near stock bike while KTM awaits their planned engine upgrades ahead of the Monster Energy MX Nationals.

“I was a little nervous because I haven’t raced a stock bike for a while, but I actually holeshotted one of the races and it goes to show how much KTM have been developing their new 450,” Waters explained.

“To work with Rob Twyerould and my mechanic Ryan [Deckert] was good and we already work really well together.”

Waters was able to gauge his speed alongside Townley for the first time in 2013 since switching to KTM, hopeful that he will be in a strong position to challenge the former world champion this season.

“Racing against BT was good,” Waters added. “He’s not like he was last year, or I think we are a little more prepared this year. He did have the upper hand over me, but it wasn’t by two or three seconds, which was good.

“I qualified first, so my pace isn’t too bad – we just need to pick it up a little more in the race. Unfortunately I had a big crash in the last one, but we’ll get there.”

Compared to 12 months ago when he also contested the pre-season in NZ, Waters is confident that he’s in a stronger position ahead of the 2013 MX Nationals.

“Definitely, I feel stronger this year,” he said. “I think my pace is a lot better than last year, I feel like everything is on target and it’s definitely going good so far.”

Waters’ new KTM teammate Kirk Gibbs also debuted at the Woodville GP, also building a strong foundation in the early part of the pre-season.