Mount Panorama had been the scene of Jamie Whincup's greatest disappointments. Now it is the place of one of his most magnificent triumphs.
Whincup squandered potential victories in the last three Bathurst 1000s with wilful acts, but on Sunday he atoned for those self-inflicted defeats by leading his Ferrari team to success in the Bathurst 12 Hour.
The majestic 6.213 km Mount Panorama track that was his undoing in the October Supercars classic from 2014-16 became a showcase for his ability in his first attempt at Australia's international GT endurance race.
In fact, Whincup's winning debut in the Bathurst 12 Hour behind the wheel of a GT3 racer was his first serious race in anything other than a Supercar since he started his V8 racing career in 2003.
His controlled aggression and calculated speed in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3, which he shared with his veteran V8 teammate Craig Lowndes and Finnish GT star Toni Vilander, was in stark contrast to the impetuous performances that cost him so dearly in his previous three appearances at Mount Panorama.
The record six-time Supercars champion threw away the 2014 Bathurst 1000 when he ran out of fuel in defiance of his crack Triple Eight Holden team's instructions of the last lap.
Whincup again ignored an instruction in '15, putting out of contention when he had been in the running for victory, and last year a rash late-race passing move caused a collision that cost him the win.
He was penalised 15 seconds for triggering a melee from which he emerged in the lead, crossing the finish line first, only to be controversially relegated to eighth.
There was no such "win it or bin it" attitude on Sunday as he took over the scarlet Ferrari, which had started from pole position, from Vilander for the final two hours of the once-around- the-clock race.
Whincup was set to fight out the race with his other Triple Eight Supercars teammate Shane van Gisbergen, who beat him in their fierce battle for last year's V8 title, and was in a rival Mercedes-AMG team for the 12 Hour.
Van Gisbergen, winner of the 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour with McLaren, was in contention until just after his final pit stop on the 273rd of 290 laps.
He took on only fuel and was soon overtaken by a charging Whincup, whose car had been fitted with fresh brake pads and new tyres in his last stop and was faster.
Van Gisbergen was set to finish a comfortable second his Mercedes-AMG GT3, which he shared with fellow New Zealander Craig Baird and German factory driver Maro Engel, when he caused a safety car intervention when he clipped to rear of a slower car on lap 279, causing it to crash and become stranded on the track.
Once the wreckage was cleared, the race was restarted on lap 283, only for van Gisbergen to lose control at the top of the circuit halfway through the lap as he tried to hang on to Whincup.
The mercurial Kiwi careened into a concrete safety barrier, damaging the front of his machine so badly that it eventually ground to a halt at the bottom of the track.
His error enraged his teammate Engel, who kicked a pile of tyres in the garage and then stormed off to a caravan behind the pits, slamming the door behind him.
When he emerged a little while later for a TV interview, he was scathing of van Gisbergen's error.
"Gotta watch what I say," he said, before adding: "All I've seen this weekend is a lot of mistakes from Shane. Yeah, it's a tough one."
With help from key personnel from the Triple Eight Supercars squad, including team manager Mark Dutton and team owner Roland Dane, Whincup brought the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari home a lap ahead of his nearest rivals.
It was Whincup's fifth endurance race win at Mount Panorama, adding to his four Bathurst 1000s, and Lowndes's eighth, joining his six Bathurst 1000 and 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour successes.
The victory was their fourth at Bathurst as co-drivers following their shared wins in the 2006/07/08 1000s, after which Supercars changed the rules and made V8 teams run their main drivers in different cars in the endurance races.
A Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Carrera Cup star Matt Campbell, world sports car champion Mark Lieb, and Americans Patrick Long and Dean Calvert Jones was second, also taking out the Pro-Am class.
British trio Stephen Kane, Guy Smith and Oliver Jarvis were third in a Bentley Continental GT3, ahead of the all-Australian amateur-class team of John Martin, Liam Talbot and Davashen Padayachee in a Walkinshaw Racing-run Porsche 911 GT3.
Bathurst 1000 organiser Supercars, which co-owns the Bathurst 12 Hour, reported a record three-day crowd of 40, 364 – an 8.8 per cent increase on last year's attendance.
It is estimated that close to 30,000 were at the track on Sunday – close to half the race day crowd of around 65,000 that attend the Bathurst 100 in October.