Jamie Whincup has stolen a march from Shane van Gisbergen at Pukekohe Park, beating home his title rival in the opening race of the Supercars meet.

Whincup jumped van Gisbergen from the line and raced away to head a Red Bull Racing one-two, despite a safety car restart owing to Jason Bright’s high-speed crash.

As he’s done so many times through his career, the six-time champion executed the most crucial part of the race – the start – and then used the speed of his Red Bull Commodore to power away.

“The car was quick. We’ll keep tuning it up and keep moving forward as the races go on,” Whincup said.

In winning, Whincup cuts the Aucklander’s championship lead to 142 points with five races remaining in the season.

The pair will start from the front row again in Saturday’s second race, beginning 2:45pm (AEDT).

The field could be a car down for the rest of the weekend after Bright’s second-lap brouhaha with Chris Pither, which brought a red flag.

Pither, who was served a drive-through penalty for the incident, bumped Bright into the grass at 180km/hr and into the crash barrier leading to the pit lane entry

Bright was able to walk away from crash but it’s unclear whether his pit team will be able to restore his Holden for the rest of the weekend.

“I copped a pretty big whack in the right rear, we’ll see what the guys can salvage,” he said.

There was further action down the field when James Moffat re-entered the track in front of Dale Wood, blunting his bonnet in the process.

In a race largely devoid of overtaking, Scott McLaughlin rounded out the podium and Mark Winterbottom finished fourth.

Craig Lowndes, who sits third in the championship, improved form his starting position of 21st – his worst qualifying effort in New Zealand in 12 years – to finish 16th.

Lowndes’ effort reduced the gap between himself and fourth-placed McLaughlin to just 40 points.