The Bathurst 12 Hour runs this Sunday. It’s one of the world’s great races, partly because of the wide range of high-end sports cars and talented drivers taking part, and partly because the Mount Panorama circuit, 200 kilometres west of Sydney, is so challenging, unforgiving and picturesque.

Oh, and there’s the small matter of the cars starting in the dark, producing outrageously fast lap times cheek-by-jowl under headlights.