The race was only green at the start for a number of corners before it was neutralised following a frightening crash for James Courtney.
The Tickford driver looked to be fired off the road on the exit of Turn 5 before bouncing across the infield and collecting a number of cars on the other side, including Scott Pye and teammate Thomas Randle.
The impact effectively took all three drivers out on the spot and led to the race being red flagged after a handful of laps behind the Safety Car.
OUCH..
— Supercars (@supercars) June 19, 2022
A massive smash on the first lap has red flagged Race 17 in Darwin! #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/dEbN2WsQ1d
After a lengthy clean up the race was restarted behind the Safety Car before finally going green again on Lap 5.
At that point polesitter Waters was leading Davison, David Reynolds and Shane van Gisbergen at the head of the queue.
Those four held formation across the first stint before van Gisbergen kicked off the stops for the front-runners by taking on two new tyres on Lap 17.
Waters and Davison responded on the next lap, resuming in what was effectively first and second, while Reynolds opted for an overcut and stayed out.
As the stops shook out Waters and Davison ended up in their own battle for the lead, little to separate the pair across the second stint.
But as tense as it was there was no way through for Davison, Waters holding on for victory.
"It means a lot," he said. "Yesterday wasn't ideal for us but it's awesome to bounce back with a pole and a win.
"We're not usually that strong up here [in Darwin] so it's nice to get a trophy and reward all the team for their hard work.
"I knew Will had something in the tank so I was just trying to manage it and make sure I had something at the end. And I had enough."
Van Gisbergen backed off in the second stint to hold up Anton De Pasquale in fourth, the Kiwi never confident that he could fight the top two cars and instead looking to consolidate third.
Reynolds, meanwhile, gambled on a four-tyre stop on Lap 22 which dropped him to ninth for the run home.
With his superior grip he was able to make decent headway, but fifth was the best he could manage by the finish.
Jack Le Brocq moved forward from eighth on the grid to sixth at the finish ahead of Mark Winterbottom, Chaz Mostert, Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat.
