The Motor Press Guild Presents Prestigious Automotive Journalism Awards

Top Honor, Dean Batchelor Award and MPG Best of the Year Awards Announced at Peterson Automotive Museum Gala

LOS ANGELES - December 11, 2007: The Motor Press Guild (MPG), America's largest professional automotive media association, announces the winners of its most prestigious honor, The Dean Batchelor Award, and the MPG Best of the Year Awards winners. The five MPG Best of the Year Awards recognize automotive journalistic excellence across several different disciplines, including articles, books, photography, and audio/visual, as well as an overall Lifetime Achievement award. Entries were judged against others in their respective category with one winner named for each category. The Dean Batchelor Award was then selected from among the four category winners.

This year's winners of the MPG Best of the Year Awards are:

Article Category: Preston Lerner for "Fast & Spurious." This article brings to life the quirky spoof of a race, the "24 hours of Le Mons" held annually at the Altamont Motorsports Park in Northern California, for street cars costing less than $500. Lerner thinks of it as "the Doo Dah Parade meets the Daytona 500, with elements of a demolition derby and 'The Gong Show' thrown in for good measure."

Book Category: Bernard Cahier for F-Stops, Pit Stops, Laughter & Tears. This book is the story of Bernard Cahier's long and fascinating journey through the automotive world of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, focusing on the sport of motor racing. It also covers his life before motor racing, as a fighter in the French resistance in World War II, and chronicles the many friends he's made, and those he, and we, have unfortunately lost.

Photography Category: Louise Ann Noeth for "Salton Sea Roadster." Her photo features a modified racing machine along the abandoned marina shoreline at California's nearly dead Salton Sea.

Audio/Visual Category: Ed Justice, Jr. for his radio interview "Insights into Car Branding with Charlie Hughes," an engaging interview that takes one firmly inside the mindset of the American automobile manufacturer.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Tom and Ray Magliozzi, also known as Click & Clack and the Tappet Brothers from National Public Radio's "Car Talk." "Car Talk" is heard by more than 4.1 million listeners each week on 588 radio stations, and their column, "Click & Clack Talk Cars," appears in 335 newspapers.

2006 Dean Batchelor Award:

Among the four Best of the Year finalists, the 2007 Dean Batchelor Award was presented to Bernard Cahier for his book, F-Stops, Pit Stops, Laughter & Tears.

About Dean Batchelor

Dean Batchelor's passion for automobiles led him to editing positions at Hop Up and Road and Track Magazines. In the late 70s, Batchelor began writing and publishing such books as Ferrari: The Early Berlinettas & Competition Coupes; Ferrari: The Early Spyders & Competition Roadsters; Ferrari: The Gran Turismo & Competition Berlinettas; and The American Hot Rod.

The career of Dean Batchelor spanned many disciplines, from aircraft builder and B-17 flyer to automotive journalist. He was the consummate historian and researcher, editor, author, racer, designer and hot rodder. No matter what he was involved with at the time, Batchelor's peers say he did it with style and with the highest ethical and professional standards.

Following his death in 1994, and to honor his memory and contributions to the automobile industry, the Motor Press Guild instituted the Dean Batchelor Award in order to recognize the best. The annual Dean Batchelor Award singles out persons demonstrating outstanding achievement in automotive journalism and communications.

About Motor Press Guild

The Los Angeles-based Motor Press Guild (MPG) is a non-profit professional association dedicated to promoting education and information exchange within the motoring press. MPG has more than 800 global members, including staff and freelance journalists, photographers, broadcasters, public-relations representatives from vehicle manufacturers, industry suppliers, aftermarket companies, consumer groups, governmental bodies and other motoring-related firms and organizations.