Craig Lowndes says the winners of Sunday’s historically-significant Bathurst 1000 will become members of a special club.

Lowndes, a five-times winner of The Great Race, admits the 50th year of the classic will automatically mean the winners will assume a coveted place on the honour roll.

Since Harry Firth and Bob Jane scooted to victory in the Armstrong 500 in 1963, the fore-runner to the Bathurst 1000, the race has grown into one of the world’s most celebrated motor races.

“Whoever wins this weekend will go down in the history books. It’s a huge landmark,” Lowndes told Speedcafe.com.

Nobody could have envisioned in their wildest dreams that the race would become part of Australian sporting folklore when Bathurst became its home after the race was run from 1960-1962 at the then crumbling Phillip Island circuit.

“It’s true that Sunday is probably even bigger than the first one in 1963 because nobody knew whether it would last and it had no tradition,” Lowndes said.

“There is no doubt that the winner of this weekend will be celebrated.”

For however much kudos is dished out to the winners of the milestone event this weekend, Lowndes rightly says it will not personally surpass his emotionally charged 2006 win only a month after his mentor Peter Brock perished in a tarmac crash.

“For me nothing would beat my 2006 win. But it will definitely rate up there.”