WATERS CONFIRMS STACKED 2022 RACE PROGRAM

You won’t meet a nicer, more genuine bloke than Todd Waters. The 2019 Australian MX champ is engaging, approachable and amusing, and goes out of his way to generate added value for his sponsors and fans. And he’s also the only active Pro motocrosser who’s taken it upon himself to contest two national series concurrently: the Australian ProMX Championship and the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC).

Since Waters launched his off-road racing career in 2020, he’s consistently been at the pointy end of proceedings. In his debut AORC, he finished fourth Outright and third in the premier E2 class. And after Covid cut last season’s AORC back to just two rounds, the 31-year-old Waters was leading the hotly contested E2 class and sitting second Outright to reigning and multiple AORC champ, Daniel Milner.

So, what can we expect from Queensland-based Waters in season 2022? Well, there’s no doubt he’ll be a title contender in both the ProMX and AORC series. And, as Husqvarna confirmed this week, Waters will also be racing the 2022 Australian 4-Day Enduro in Victoria in early May as well as the infamous Hattah Desert Race come July.

Here’s this week’s PR from Husqvarna, confirming season 2022’s race program for the bloke who has to be the busiest Pro rider on their books…

Husqvarna Racing Team motocross racer Todd Waters will also continue his quest for titles in the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) throughout 2022, also set to debut in the Australian 4-Day Enduro (A4DE) and Hattah Desert Race.

Former national MX1 champion, Waters, was already named to be leading Husqvarna Motorcycles’ inhouse factory ProMX effort for another season riding an FC450, while he will enter AORC as a title favourite in E2 and Outright within his own Husky-backed enduro program.

Despite 2022 being his third campaign battling the best off-road racers in the country, 31-year-old Queenslander Waters is still relatively new to the sport, having only raced five rounds of the AORC over two shortened seasons.

In that short time, though, Waters has quickly established himself as a serious contender. After finishing third in the AORC E2 standings on debut in 2020, Waters stormed to two E2 class wins at Victoria’s Golden Beach last year prior to the season being cancelled.

With the promise of a full season of racing the clock beckoning, Waters will be equipped with the highly competitive Husqvarna FE450 in the AORC when the series takes off at Cherrabah in Queensland on March 19-20.

Todd Waters: “It’s exciting to be adding enduro to our motocross plans for another season and I’m ready to go. I’m never really results-driven from a training perspective, but I’m definitely going out to win any time that we line up. At the same time, it’s hard to prepare for the AORC, as I haven’t raced a full championship and I’ve never experienced a cross-country format yet! The different formats that we race in off-road really excite me and I’m looking forward to the longer enduro races and the likes of Hattah. This year we’re running the Husqvarna enduro program ourselves and that suits me to a tee – I’m confident with what we can deliver and we’ve spent the past three months finding the optimal bike and suspension set-up. I’m fit, healthy and I’m going into the first round as prepared as I can possibly be.”

Kyle Blunden (KTM Group Australia Motorsport Manager): “To continue our longstanding relationship with Todd in his pursuit for success in the off-road segment and also in motocross is very exciting. Todd has shown on numerous occasions that he has what it takes to win against the country’s best racers and, after refining his set-up with Paul [Baericke] at MPE, he is feeling more comfortable than ever. Todd has grown both as a racer and Husqvarna Motorcycles ambassador over the years and we are thrilled to be going racing with him in 2022.”