Motorsport: Shane van Gisbergen's sensational Supercars streak ends

Jamie Whincup edged Shane van Gisbergen in today's first race. Photo / Getty

Shane van Gisbergen has had to settle for equalling a Supercars record rather than setting a new one.

After six races of the season, the Kiwi driver was on track to surpass the mark for the best start to a campaign, having equalled that of Allan Moffat (1977) and Mark Skaife (1994). However, it was teammate Jamie Whincup who ended van Gisbergen's bid to etch his name alone in the history books, winning the first of the two Tasmania Supersprint races on Sunday.

"This bloke beside me, he's had a shocker; he's come second," Whincup joked after the race.

Starting sixth in the first race of the day, van Gisbergen did well to improve his position throughout the race. However, he wasn't able to catch Whincup, whose start in the No 2 position set him up nicely heading into the race.

In the seventh race of the campaign, the Kiwi was unable to make up enough ground to get the better of Whincup, who took the race by a little more than a second. It was Whincup's 123rd race win in his Supercars career.

In the second race of the day, van Gisbergen again had ground to make up if he was to find his way onto the podium as he was starting the race in seventh on the grid. Ultimately, he was only able to improve one spot, finishing the race in sixth place, about 14 seconds behind winner Chaz Mostert.

With the weekend's results, van Gisbergen remains comfortably atop the championship points table with 865, 139 points ahead of Whincup in second and Mostert 165 points off the pace in third.

Amid the weekend's racing, it was announced Supercars would be making a return to New Zealand later this year.

The Auckland Supersprint event will be the penultimate one on the calendar, running on the weekend of November 6-7 at Pukekohe Park raceway in Auckland. This year marks the 20th anniversary since the Supercars Championship debut at Pukekohe, in what was the first points round to take place outside of Australia.

"I'm just happy we're going," van Gisbergen said of the announcement. "I didn't care what track.

"But we're at Pukekohe again, the home of Supercars in New Zealand, which is cool. I love racing there, can stay at home and get out there. I love it."