CycleOnline.com.au catches up with the youngest brother of the speedy Waters trio, Nick, who is embarking on a very new challenge in 2013. After plans for a season of Superbike racing went astray, Waters was left with the very real prospect of not racing at all this year.

We find out about an eventful off-season and his eventual move to a seat in the Asia Dream Cup.

Nick Waters’ promising Superstock 1000 campaign came to an end after such a strong run in Darwin last year. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Nick, we know your charge was cut short by injury last year after such a promising start. Run us through your rollercoaster 2012 season.

The championship started off really good, I went to Darwin in second and took a clean sweep for the race meeting. Coming up to round three, just before Mother’s Day, I was out doing a bit of last minute training and unfortunately I had a bit of an off and broke my wrist. I basically threw my championship away.

I tried everything I could to get back on the bike for round four, so I’d at least score some points. Simon and the RaceSafe guys tried everything they could, I flew to Melbourne on the Wednesday before the round and tried to get some kind of physio done on it but it was far from being okay to ride. It put me out for those two rounds and that was the end of the season.

After that I went back and tried to get back to the race pace I could run at. We finished the year as a whole on a high but we wanted to be the Prostock champions so it definitely wasn’t the overall result we’d been chasing.

It must have been tough to have your title chances torn away like that, especially considering you were in your debut year of racing the 1000cc. You did, in amongst it all, manage to deliver an outstanding result in the MotoGP support rounds – was that a highlight for you?

Yeah absolutely. With Geoff Winzer and Gary House in my corner I couldn’t do much better, I’m very lucky to have them on my side. Geoffrey is the Superbike guru, that’s all he wants to do. We found enough parts and got a parts budget from sponsors to be able to go racing. The learning curve was big, and we only had one bike, put I think we did pretty damn well to come out of there in third. I’d hoped that would lead to some sort of factory gig or at least the extra support for this year but unfortunately not.

Were your initial plans to go racing with the team on a Superbike in 2013? It seemed as though you had a very good synergy and showed you could be strong on the bike even with very little racing behind you?

Of course, those were the initial plans. Geoff, Gary and myself were going to plug along this year in a Superbike gig, put from both ends we just couldn’t come up with a parts budget. We couldn’t even get a foot in the door at any manufacturer. These are hard times and there was just nothing going.

For this year I had just planned to maybe do the Finke Desert race and Hattah, and maybe a few off-road rounds, but I couldn’t get the budget together. It was looking like there was nothing on the horizon when I got the call from Tony Hinton.

Waters in his first competitive outing on the Honda CBR250R in the Asia Dream Cup ranks. Image: Asia Road Racing Championship.

It seemed like a late call up, how did you fare in your first round at Sepang given the number of unknowns you were up against – the track, the bike, your competition, and so on?

The last time I raced a road bike was those MotoGP support events so I kind of had to shift back into gear really quickly. It was exciting getting over there and all, you don’t really know what to expect. You don’t know who is fast, or how it all works. It was definitely a case of diving in the deep end!

The other competitors had been able to test for two days about a fortnight before the round, and they were lucky to get a dry and wet day in, so they had the right setups for the race weekend. They all knew the track pretty well too, so it was just a case of me and Gary chipping away at things and focusing on our own times.

I got through the event pretty well and was working on putting some changes into place when I got a call up from Tony who told me he had set up a CBR250R, the same as what we race over there, for me to run at track days. That’s been the goal, just getting the bike worked out and managing the step from the Superbike to the smaller bike.

There are obviously plenty of differences, the main being the power and physical size of the bike. How are you adapting to this – do you change anything you do in your preparation or training?

Yeah the main thing is the weight. I’m struggling with that, I’ve put myself on a bit of a diet and am trying to slim down a lot. The kids I am racing are shorter and a lot lighter, they weigh lots less than us Aussies! The fitness side of things isn’t so bad, I don’t have to hold on as much as I did with the Superbike, but the races are still pretty long, so there is that to consider too.

We’ve been watching with interest the progress of your older brother, Josh, in the British Superbikes with Milwaukee Yamaha? Are you planning to head over to the UK to watch any of his upcoming races?

Yeah for sure. Myself and Brodie will probably go over there and check out a track we haven’t seen yet. There’s nothing better than having your younger brothers in the pit telling you where you’re slow (laughs). It will be good to get back over there. I did the last round last year, that was one of the doors I’d hoped to open up but in the end the ride really comes down to money, and it just didn’t happen.

CycleOnline wishes you all the best for the remainder of the season, Nick.