Waters was confirmed the 2025 champion on Saturday and won the first Sunday race ahead of Jonathan Nahlous and Jones before the latter beat Nahlous and Waters in the second outing.
From fifth on the grid, Waters was able to storm through to take the lead into the first corner on the Ducati V4R. He led the first lap ahead of pole sitter Cru Halliday (Ducati), Jones (Yamaha YZF-R1) and Nahlous (Honda CBR RR).
Fifth was Broc Pearson (Ducati) but near the end of Lap 2, he crashed out at Turn 18. That moved Cameron Dunker (Yamaha) up a place ahead of Glenn Allerton (Ducati), Ant West (Yamaha) and Troy Herfoss (Yamaha).
By the end of the third of 11 laps, the top four had eked out a two-second lead over Dunker and company. Two laps later, Harriday’s race was over when he went down at Turn 1.
“My foot slipped off the peg earlier and I noticed there was fluid there; the front just dropped,” he reported. The fluid came from a hole in the radiator.
Despite one mistake around halfway through, Waters maintained the lead to the end. Nahlous overcame Jones to finish second, with the three covered by 1.47 seconds.
Almost seven seconds adrift, West was fourth, having passed Allerton and Dunker. Allerton was left to duke it out with Herfoss, lost out on the penultimate lap at Turn 14 before he was able to repass and hold on for a narrow sixth.
Like he did in Race 1, Waters was again brilliant off the line in the second race and led by Turn 1. Halliday sat second in front of Jones, Nahlous and Dunker. But the race was stopped on the second lap after the Jack Davis Yamaha lunched its engine between Turns 17 and 18.
The restart would be over nine laps and would be missing Halliday. The team had fitted a standard radiator between races which wasn’t adequate to keep the race engine cool.
This time Waters made a meal of the start and initially fell to seventh as Nahlous led Jones, Dunker and West.
Jones shadowed Nahlous and made his move at Turn 12 on the third lap. From there he maintained the front running and crossed the line a second ahead of Nahlous.
Waters quickly gained momentum and was third after three laps where he remained to the end. West finished fourth ahead of Pearson on a replacement bike, after both passed Dunker in the second half.
Rounding out the top 10 were Max Stauffer (Yamaha), Allerton, and Herfoss who just held off John Lytras (Yamaha).
Waters finished the championship on 381 points, 50 ahead of Jones while West, Dunker, Allerton and Nahlous were third through to sixth.
Among the supports, in Kawasaki Supersport two-time British Superbike Champion, Kyle Ryde won both races while Jack Mahaffy won the title, the first Michelin-shod rider to do so since 2005. Fellow Yamaha rider Archie McDonald was second in each race and second in the championship.
The race wins in Supersport 300 went to Nikolas Lazos and Riley Nauta while Scott Nicholson came into the round with an insurmountable lead. Race 2 was abandoned after six riders crashed at Turn 1 on Lap 3, three or whom were hurt.
ShopYamaha R3 Cup honours went to Mitch Simpson after Hudson Thompson and Valentino Knezovic were the race winners. There were three different race winners in Oceania Junior Cup with Xavier Curmi, Chaz Williams and Rossi McAdam before Connor Lewis secured the title. Meanwhile in in Superbike Masters, Beau Beaton was crowned after an unbeaten campaign.
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