Motorsport: McLaughlin shines at Clipsal

New Zealander Scott McLaughlin bought his bright blue S60 home in seventh position at the Clipsal 500. Photo / Getty

The story of the opening race of the 2014 V8 Supercars at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, wasn't so much that Volvo have entered the championship, but rather New Zealander Scott McLaughlin bought his bright blue S60 home in seventh position.

Gary Rogers Motorsport is now working with the motorsport arm of Volvo, Polestar Racing, and unlike last year's newcomers to the category Nissan and Mercedes AMG, they have been fast straight out of the box.

It was a relieved GRM and Volvo pit garage after 39 laps of racing to see the cars of McLaughlin and teammate Robert Dahlgren cross the line still running strongly and in one piece.

In qualifying on Friday McLaughlin put his car fifth for race one and on the front row for the twilight race in P2. "I'm not the rookie anymore and I know we have a good package and I want to prove we can be at the front," said McLaughlin.

"The two good qualifying sessions, especially getting on the front row, set us up well for the race today. It was a tough battle in the race and good for Volvo to be able to have a crack and fight at the front of the field.

"I tried to get another spot but those guys are pretty fast. I tried to get past Rick [Kelly] but wanted to keep it clean and keep the car straight. It's a great start to the weekend and really good to get some points. We didn't expect to be so competitive so early, so onwards and upwards."

It was more good news for the Kiwis with Shane van Gisbergen and his Tekno Autosport crew coming home in third to kick their season off with a decent point's haul and Fabian Coulthard bringing his Lockwood Racing machine home in fifth.

"It wasn't too bad but man those Triple Eight cars are fast," said van Gisbergen. "We've just got to try and make our car a bit better. We were good enough for third but we need a bit more work to get the car to go faster.

"It's a good start to the championship and we had to make the most of the first race. The car's pretty good and over all we're doing okay so far."

Red Bull Racing Australia started the 2014 V8 Supercars championship where they left off last year with a one, two finish with defending champion Jamie Whincup holding of a fast charging Craig Lowndes towards the end of the race.

Whincup's decision to pit as soon as the pit lane window opened on lap five was a masterful stroke allowing him to re-join the race in clear air and gain as much time on Lowndes and van Gisbergen before they pitted.

"We're really, really happy with the result of the race," said Whincup. "The car's really fast and it's a great way to start the year off with a one-two for Red Bull. It's important to get points early in the season and we saw from qualifying it was going to be close race and we need every point we can get.

"It was a really enjoyable scrap with Gizzy [van Gisbergen] at the start of the race and Lowndes was in the mix as well. He was coming on strong towards the end I wasn't too sure how I was going to hold him out."

For the first time in V8 Supercars' history the category held a twilight race this evening, another 125 kilometre sprint, and tomorrow there's the more traditional 250 kilometre ace were strategy will have a much important role to play.