An arguably vindicated and definitely relieved Shane van Gisbergen began his 'new' career with his first race V8 Supercar win of the year at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today.

Van Gisbergen left his former team Stone Brothers Racing, now Erebus Motorsport V8, in controversial circumstances at the end of last year, saying he wanted to get away from fulltime racing.

He unexpectedly decided to return with emerging Tekno Autosports in a Holden Commodore, and today held off the form players of the past several years in front of a completely sold out Adelaide crowd of 95,000 people.

Van Gisbergen outlasted Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in the twin Red Bull Racing Australia Commodores to become the Clipsal 500 winner.

The pair of Red Bull Racers diced with Russell Ingall for the final podium places immediately following the restart, but ultimately prevailed to take the final two spots, Ingall finishing fourth.

Mark Winterbottom finished fifth, ahead of Will Davison - slow pit stops hurting both FPR cars throughout today's race. James Courtney, Tony D'Alberto, Scott McLaughlin and Jonathon Webb completed the top 10.

It was the first time in more than a year that a winner did not come from either the Red Bull or Pepsi Max FPR teams.

Afterwards the young Kiwi again chose not to elaborate on recent times.

"I have to apologise to everyone for the other day and I'm happy to talk about the racing again today," Van Gisbergen said when asked by the media about his situation with his former team.

"It's been pretty overwhelming but I'm stoked to put a good race together today. It was a tough race, I had good speed first and second stint but when I got behind Jamie the pace stopped."

Van Gisbergen scored his first race win with SBR in Hamilton, now his third in Adelaide.

"I can't pass Hamilton, that was fantastic to win there at home," he said. "This is a very close second with everything that has gone on. It was great to just get out there in a good car and go racing."

Second-placed Whincup admitted his team were outdone today in the car his own team built.

"I still can't get over the fact that a Kiwi has won the first event, that hurts," Whincup said. "No, Shane and his team did an incredibly good job. The pace was unbelievable out there; we were going flat stick all day. They stepped up, we didn't do a poor job."

After two thirds of the race were to and fro between pit cycles it erupted towards the end.

The elusive safety car took 143 laps across yesterday and today to finally appear when Alex Davison got a little too bold at turn eight having followed Rick Kelly around Scott Pye, ramming into the wall at high speed. He slid across the track and into the opposite wall: game over.

The safety car gave Whincup and Lowndes to have a show at Van Gisbergen who until that stage had a ten second lead. It also gave veteran Russell Ingall a glimpse of a podium and 19-year-old rooke Scott McLaughlin the same hope.

From the restart the race ignited. In the space of a lap Lowndes and Whincup tangled leaving the current Champion flailing before Ingall pounced and got around both of them for second. Whincup though reeled him soon after, as did Lowndes.

The chaotic few laps allowed Van Gisbergen to scoot clear once again and hold on by a narrow margin to Whincup.

Earlier in the race Fabian Coulthard ended a great but sad weekend.

Coulthard had been so fast all weekend but without the results in the Lockwood Commodore. This time he had an early brush with the notorious turn eight, smashing the left hand side of the wall at around 280km/h. The damage to the left rear end was substantial.

Several other cars brushed the wall around the same time but Coulthard suffered the most damage. Soon after the exact same thing happened to David Reynolds in the Bottle-O Falcon, again the team having to fix significant damage to the left rear.

It appeared oil on the track may have caused the problem.

German touring car ace Maro Engel was forced out with a suspected electronic issue in the Mercedes AMG while Norton 360 Racing's Michael Caruso lost fourth gear but also his cool suit, with the team deciding it was safer for him to retire.