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Gary Watkins: Top 10 24-hour classics

Gary Watkins has been covering endurance racing for over 20 years now. With the Nurburgring 24 coming up this weekend, he picks out his top 10 races

Gary Watkins May 18, 2012, 12:13 PM

It seems like a lifetime ago that I pitched up at Le Mans for my first 24-hour race as a bright-eyed cub reporter. That was way back in 1990, long enough ago for me now to be knocking on the door of a half-century of around-the-clock reporting.

Adding 16 Daytonas, 10 Spas, one Nurburgring and one Willhire (the last) at Snetterton to my tally of 21 Le Mans, I now find myself on 49 24-hour races covered, most of them for AUTOSPORT. That makes my attendance at this weekend's Nurburgring 24 Hours an historic event for me.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.