Motor Press Guild Names Dean Batchelor Award Winner

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 4, 2002; The Motor Press Guild last night presented its Dean Batchelor Award to Gordon Kirby during the organization's annual Holiday Awards Dinner at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Kirby, motorsports journalist and author of five auto-racing books, was recognized for his compelling biography of Mario Andretti.

"For a racing writer it's difficult to imagine a more engaging and fulfilling project to undertake than Mario Andretti's biography," Kirby said. "Mario is one of the greatest racing drivers of all-time and his charismatic, yet straightforward manner, sharp wit and deep historical appreciation for motor racing made working with him a great privilege and pleasure."

Kirby began his motorsports career in the early '70s as manager of David Loring's Formula Ford team, which won 41 races in the U.S., Canada and England. In 1973 he became a full-time journalist and writer and has covered over 600 major automobile races.

A resident of Mt. Sunapee, NH, Kirby is the American editor of England's weekly racing magazine, Autosport, and the American editor of Autocourse, the world's leading racing annual. He is a contributing editor to Road & Track and has been a founding editor at large of many American racing publications. His work has also appeared in Car & Driver, Newsweek and Sports Car International to name a few. He is currently working on his sixth book detailing Honda's decade of racing in CART.

The Dean Batchelor Award was established in 1995 and annually recognizes outstanding achievements by automotive writers, photographers and broadcasters. It was named in honor of one of the icons of automotive journalism whose passion for automobiles led him to many positions in various magazines in the industry and also to author several definitive books. In addition, Batchelor was actively involved in motorsports, designing and building the "So-Cal Streamliner" racecar that was used as inspiration for the award.