Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen has extended his stellar run in South Australia, whittling away at Scott McLaughlin’s Supercars series lead by claiming the maiden The Bend SuperSprint’s opening race on Saturday.

Van Gisbergen won the 120km race at Supercars’ new $110 million facility at Tailem Bend, an hour outside Adelaide, with ease.

He was more than six seconds clear of Nissan duo Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso in front of 15,700 fans.

Remarkably, it was van Gisbergen’s fifth straight victory in South Australia.

The Kiwi has won the last four races at the season-opening Adelaide 500 and has now added The Bend to his tally of SA scalps.

Van Gisbergen arrived at the new track trailing Ford’s McLaughlin by 89 points but has reduced the deficit to just 41 ahead of Sunday’s 200km finale.

“It was about staying on the track. It was so hard. I just tried to behave,” van Gisbergen said.

McLaughlin finished sixth in the 24-lap race.

“We have got plenty of work to do but I think we have made a step in the right direction,” he said.

The 18-turn, 4.95km track had created chaos in practice and qualifying as Supercars’ biggest names came unstuck, spearing off corner after corner.

But the wild scenes expected in the race didn’t eventuate with only one safety car emerging after Garth Tander’s Holden broke down after six laps.

Van Gisbergen qualified second fastest but overtook pole sitter and teammate Jamie Whincup by the fifth lap.

However his advantage over the field was cut when the safety car emerged a lap later when Tander suffered engine dramas.

Reigning series champion Whincup was the big loser during the safety car period.

He pitted with van Gisbergen in second place but returned to the track in eighth after being forced to double stack or wait for his teammate to enter the garage first.

He recovered to finish fourth.

Former series champ, Holden’s James Courtney, was the biggest improver – he started 24th on the grid in the 28-strong field and finishing eighth.