The Winternationals is not just another race on the Australian calendar. For the straight-line sport Down Under, it is the most prolific drag race in the country. 

This season, the hallowed event hosted annually by Willowbank Raceway, located just outside of Brisbane, celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Hall of Fame Top Fuel driver Jim Read proudly celebrates the golden anniversary.

Read, a 17-time Winternationals champion knew from the first event in 1968; the event was destined for greatness. 

"It was quite obvious when they started this event; it was going to progress and become a marquee event," Read said. "Everyone loved it."

Australia's first Winternationals event was held on June 23, 1968, at Surfers Paradise International Raceway and played host to 85 entries, including three motorcycles. 

Noted Australian Drag Racing historian Lex Swayn described the first meeting as the perfect springboard for decades of success.

"Surfers had just opened in 1966, with six American dragsters," Swayne said. "It was very successful, and soon the promoters were looking for more and more successful promotions. The came up with the idea of pitching the American name of the Winter Nationals. It has turned out to be a great success and has led to what it is 49 years later.

"I read an account from a journalist, who covered the event, and he believed it would be huge and his words have proven prophetic." 

The venue, which has only been held in Queensland, on the north side of Australia's east coast, has provided an optimal destination in the cooling months While the United States during the early days of June are headed into summer, Australia enters Fall.. 

"The Winters started at our Gold Coast which is the equivalent to America's Florida," Read explained. "Everyone says, 'Mum and the Kids, you can have a holiday, and I will take me racecar. And it's also the Queens Holiday. That's still happening today. They come along, and the family ends up at Seaworld and the other attractions while Dad is at the track with his toy. This race has always had a formula for success."

As real estate progress closed down Surfer's Paradise located in the vastly expanding Gold Coast, the event moved 90 miles northwest to Ipswich the following season.

The event, in 1997, pulled away from the other events on the Australian Drag Racing calendar and quickly established itself as the premiere meeting. The event even surpassed the numbers of the Nationals, the traditional pilgrimage to Calder Park. 

And while the Nationals have since bounced around to other venues, there's only one strip for the Winternationals. At least this is how Read sees it. 

"It wouldn't work anywhere else," Read said. "It's like the U.S. Nationals in America, it wouldn't work anywhere but in Indianapolis."