Motor Press Guild Selects 2009 Dean Batchelor Award Finalists

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10, 2009 -- The Los Angeles-based Motor Press Guild (MPG) today announced its 2009 Dean Batchelor Award finalists. Established in 1995, the Dean Batchelor Award recognizes excellence in automotive journalism as exemplified by the man it is named after-Dean Batchelor.

The Award singles out individuals demonstrating outstanding achievement in the profession of automotive journalism. Each year MPG presents the Dean Batchelor Award to the journalist judged to have produced the single piece of work which best represents the professional standards and excellence demanded by Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry.

The winner of each category receives the MPG Best of the Year award in that category. The Dean Batchelor Award is then chosen from among the four category winners.

  The 2009 finalists are:

  Article Category
  --  Tim Considine, "Inside ESPN", Road & Track, April 2009
  --  Preston Lerner, "The Joy of Slow," Automobile Magazine, March 2009

  --  Pete Lyons, "Remembering a Champion," Vintage Racecar Magazine,
      November 2008

  Audio/Visual Category
  --  Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Top Gear,
      August 2, 2009
  --  Keith Cossrow and Bennett Viseltear, Truth in 24, March 2009

  --  Will Roegge, Climb Attack, July 2009

  Book Category
  --  Michael Argetsinger, Mark Donohue, Technical Excellence at Speed,
      David Bull Publishing
  --  Carlos Jalife-Villalon, The Brothers Rodriguez, David Bull Publishing

  --  Ralph Kramer, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 100 Years of Racing, Krause
      Publications

  Photography Category
  --  Scott Jacobs, Ford GT500 at Sears Point, InsideLine.com, April 15,
      2009
  --  Alison Merion, Drifting, driftlive.com, August 30, 2009

  --  Kurt Niebuhr, Two Legends Face Off, 2010 Ford Mustang vs 2009 Nissan
      370Z, Edmunds.com, March 10, 2009

The Best of the Year and Batchelor awards are given at the annual awards banquet, this year scheduled for December 8th at the Automotive Driving Museum in El Segundo.

In addition, the Dean Batchelor Lifetime Achievement Award, selected separately by the Motor Press Guild Board of Directors, is presented on a case-by-case basis to individuals for outstanding contributions to the automotive communications industry.

The Dean Batchelor Award was first presented posthumously to Dean Batchelor in 1995 for his seminal book on hot rodding, The American Hot Rod, which was published after his death in 1994.

ABOUT MPG

The Los Angeles-based Motor Press Guild (MPG) is the largest automotive media association in North America with more than 700 members. This non-profit trade guild is dedicated to promoting professionalism in automotive journalism through education and information exchange within the motoring press. Members include journalist from print, broadcast, visual and new-media outlets as well as public-relations representatives, consumer groups, and governmental bodies tied to the automotive industry.