After spending most of the Supercars season fighting a Kiwi invasion, Holden's Jamie Whincup is out to strike back on New Zealand soil this weekend.
The Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver heads across the Tasman for this weekend's Auckland SuperSprint event holding a narrow lead in a five-way championship battle.
Just 189 points separate the top five contenders with New Zealand trio Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard and Shane Van Gisbergen among the title chasers.
Whincup and teammate Van Gisbergen have dominated at Pukekohe Park Raceway in recent years, winning five of the past seven Supercars races at the 2.91km circuit.
Van Gisbergen, Coulthard and McLaughlin have however won 15 of the 22 races so far this season, a fact that's not lost on Whincup.
"It's going to be tough over there. The Kiwis have won the majority of the races this year between Fabs, Scotty and Shane-o, they've just cleaned up," Whincup told AAP.
"Those guys are going to rise, they're always going to rise at their home event.
It's dangerous for me, being an Aussie ... it's not ideal that the second-last round of the year is over there but it is what is and we'll just try to do the best job we can."
Whincup's second-place finish in Sunday's race at the Gold Coast 600 earlier this month put him ahead in the championship standings for the first time in 2017.
But the six-time champion's lead could have been even greater had Team Penske's McLaughlin not pulled off a strategy master stroke to surge ahead of Whincup and Van Gisbergen in that race to secure a seventh win of the year.
McLaughlin jumped both Red Bull drivers through an early pit stop, an outcome that Whincup clearly views as a missed opportunity.
"That was painful. We were in the box seat, we certainly didn't expect him to turn around a seven-second deficit to come out in the lead in that last stint," Whincup said.
"Those guys are dangerous. They've got real pace which is always dangerous and a bit of an eye-opener for us."
The Auckland SuperSprint begins on Friday with practice before a 70-lap race each on Saturday and Sunday.
