V8 Supercars' youngest Champion equalled one of the oldest records with an emphatic win at the Clipsal 500, and Craig Lowndes has zero intention of slowing down.

In what was the biggest margin in the history of the amazing Clipsal 500, Lowndes opened the new 'era' of V8 Supercar racing with a 20 second victory in his Red Bull Racing Australia Commodore ahead of Pepsi Max FPR's Will Davison and team-mate Jamie Whincup.

With 28 brand new cars and two new marques the cream still rose to the top but new challengers arrived, namely in VIP Petfood's Shane van Gisbergen and the Fujitsu GRM pair of Alex Premat and Scott McLaughlin starting the year in sensational form.

Lowndes matched the 90-race win mark to equal five-time Champion Mark Skaife as the joint record holder. It was a big mark for the 39-year-old who continues to flourish as his career continues.

"Hopefully it's going to be great to beat it but that could be a long way away. Today we had a fairly healthy gap but I don't think the competition is that slow, we just had a better run," Lowndes said.

"If and when I get an opportunity to beat him I am sure Mark will come down and thank me."

The massive winning margin Lowndes said was not representative of where the field stands; and certainly not what he expected.

"Jeremy (Engineer Jeremy Moore) said to me at the start of the race to go get some points and have a good start to the year so what better way to do it," he said.

"You always have that luxury to look the car and to tip-toe around when you need to. The car was strong all day but we had to be patient at the start."

Second-placed Davison also ran a different strategy, working his way forward from the bottom half of the top-10 having started the day in seventh palace. 

"I didn't see Craig the whole race," he said.

"I was running quite a different strategy. I quite enjoyed it. They told me I was fourth when it thought I was third. This is a good start for FPR. Congrats to every single member of the team. These are tricky cars - but it's an awesome start."

Defending champion Jamie Whincup said his car lacked the pace to contend for the victory.

"We didn't have quite enough speed, but got position when others dropped back," he said.

"As the race went on I thought we would end up sixth or seventh, so I feel like I've stolen a podium today."

While Davison grabbed a podium Mark Winterbottom's day ended without even crossing the start finish line once when some sort of failure brought him straight into the pits from the race lead. It was devastating for the Pepsi Max FPR driver who had such a great start.

A similar fate presented itself for Van Gisbergen who was forced out of the race on lap 64.

Premat finished a career best fourth in his Fujitsu Racing GRM Holden, with James Courtney fifth.  Scott McLaughlin was another to notch a career best (solo-driving) performance in sixth with Garth Tander, Jonathon Webb, Alex Davison and Russell Ingall completed the Top 10.

Gearbox issues stopped van Gisbergen from finishing his first race in a Holden - but his race had issues before his ultimate demise.

A slow start from the Kiwi saw him drop to 10th at the end of the opening lap - though he was able to work his way back into podium contention later in the race before retiring.

Fabian Coulthard's Lockwood Racing Commodore was an early race leader and a podium contender until the final laps, when brake issues slowed his charge and dropped him to an ultimate 19th-place finish.

Rick Kelly was the first Nissan home in 11th, just two seconds outside of the Top-10. Kelly had run inside the Top five during the pit stop sequence. Tim Slade the best of the Erebus Racing E63 AMGs in 15th.

The two new manufacturers experienced mixed days, with Todd Kelly forced out of the race after sixteen laps having trailed oil for several laps prior to its demise, and Michael Caruso sidelined for several laps with a power steering pump issue.

In the Erebus Racing camp, Maro Engel failed to complete the formation lap but would later rejoin and finish the race as the final classified finisher, all three cars making it to the line.