The incredible Triple Eight record on the line in Sydney
When the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship commences in Sydney, Red Bull Ampol Racing will be eyeing an extension of a stunning record.
Shane van Gisbergen swept the Repco Mt Panorama 500 last February to open the 2021 season.
He would go on to win 13 more races and clinch a second drivers' title at Sydney Motorsport Park in November.
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Van Gisbergen's Race 1 win at Mount Panorama was the 14th time in 16 seasons that a Triple Eight Race Engineering car opened a new season with victory.
The Kiwi did it in 2017 and 2018 on the streets of Adelaide.
The Triple Eight streak stretches back to the Adelaide 500 in 2006, when Craig Lowndes won the Saturday leg.
That day, Broc Feeney - who has replaced Jamie Whincup - was still just three years old.
Whincup wins in Abu Dhabi in 2010
Whincup won on the Sunday in 2006, and won Race 1 of new seasons nine times between 2008 and 2020.
The only outliers in the streak are 2007 and 2019.
Todd Kelly won the opening leg of the 2007 Adelaide 500 for the Holden Racing Team, before Scott McLaughlin did the same for DJR Team Penske in 2019.
Whincup also opened the 2010 and 2011 seasons with victory in Abu Dhabi, the first of which was Triple Eight's first race in Holdens.
The 2022 season will commence at Sydney Motorsport Park in three weeks' time.
The event will be headlined by dual 300km races, which will feature mixed tyre compound racing.
Lowndes wins in Adelaide in 2013
It'll be a gruelling test for Red Bull Ampol Racing's new starlet Feeney, who has replaced the retired Whincup.
Feeney has a chance to become the youngest ever Supercars race winner when he lines up in Sydney.
He will be aged 19 years, 4 months and 15 days when Race 1 gets underway in Sydney on March 5.
McLaughlin holds the record for youngest ever winner; he won at Pukekohe in 2013 aged 19 years, 10 months and three days.
The 13-event 2022 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Sydney in March.
CLICK HERE to purchase your Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight tickets.
Van Gisbergen wins in Adelaide in 2017
Triple Eight's record of Race 1 victories
2006: Craig Lowndes, Adelaide2008: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2009: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2010: Jamie Whincup, Abu Dhabi2011: Jamie Whincup, Abu Dhabi2012: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2013: Craig Lowndes, Adelaide2014: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2015: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2016: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2017: Shane van Gisbergen, Adelaide2018: Shane van Gisbergen, Adelaide2020: Jamie Whincup, Adelaide2021: Shane van Gisbergen, Bathurst
