Overall, it was McMartin Racing’s Waters on his Ducati V4R who was the round winner, his 16th while his Race 2 win was his 33rd from 145 starts. Race 1 winner Yamaha Racing Team’s Halliday finished second overall ahead of Broc Pearson (Desmo Sport Ducati).

Reigning champion Troy Herfoss (Ducati) was third fastest in qualifying, behind Waters and his teammate Harrison Voight, but would be a non-starter.

“I had a small touch down at Turn 4 in the warm up and the team rebuilt something that probably didn’t need to be,” Herfoss explained, adding that he didn’t have full throttle.

Waters led from the start from Voight before they swapped briefly, before Matt Walters crashed his Aprilia RSV4 at Turn 1 on Lap 3 and the race was red flagged.

The grid reformed for 10 laps where Waters led until the penultimate lap. Voight was second until he was passed by Halliday who then grabbed the lead and the win.

Mike Jones was just behind the trio in fourth, clearly ahead of fellow Yamaha YZF-R1 rider Cameron Dunker, Pearson and Bryan Staring (Yamaha). Also, on Yamahas and close together were Anthony West and Max Stauffer while Glenn Allerton (BMW S RR) came in 10th.

There was light rain as they gridded for the night race. It became heavier as they took off. Almost immediately the race was red flagged, then to be determined a wet race for the restart.

Herfoss quickly grabbed the lead at the restart and led the first lap from Pearson, Waters, Voight, Dunker and Halliday. On the second lap, Herfoss dropped the bike at Turn 6, and Waters passed Pearson two corners later.

They swapped the lead a couple of times over the next three laps before Waters edged away to win by 3.7s. Pearson was well clear of third which was close between several and headed by Stauffer who was 11th early.

Just behind were Halliday, Voight, Staring, Arthur Sissis (Yamaha) and Dunker. Allerton was in the mix and fifth when he slide off at Turn 6 on the second last lap. Jones finished ninth ahead of Josh Soderland (Yamaha).

“The conditions made it very sketchy; I was really lucky to have stayed on the motorcycle and cross the line first,” said Waters.

The third round will be at Queensland Raceway on April 26-28.