Holden joy has turned into despair with Ford flyer Scott McLaughlin winning the second race of the Supercars’ season-opening Adelaide 500.

The two-time defending champion kept his nerve around the South Australian capital’s street circuit to finish in front of Holden’s Chaz Mostert and Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters.

But it was Shane van Gisbergen who appeared to be on track to make it a memorable Holden double after starting Sunday’s 78-lap affair from pole.

The Red Bull star led for most of the race, but had to make an extra pit-stop because his Commodore was running low on fuel.

Returning to the track, van Gisbergen spun out with four laps to go and tumbled to the back of the field.

It crushed hopes of Holden fans who were pumped by the prospect of making it a red lion double to open the season after Jamie Whincup’s emotional race-one win on Saturday.

Van Gisbergen failed to finish the race along with Chris Pither, Anton de Pasquale and Scott Pye, who were caught in early carnage.

Will Davison capped off a solid weekend by finishing fourth, while Whincup overcame a disastrous top-10 shootout in qualifying to round out the top five.

McLaughlin said after his 44th career victory that he would take all the luck he could get.

“Full credit to Shane and his team, but he really should’ve won that race,” he said.

“They (Red Bull) had the faster car. We’ve got to take the luck when we can but just really happy with all the Ford fans out there to have a win.”