The Motor Press Guild Presents Prestigious Automotive Journalism Awards

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

LOS ANGELES - December 6, 2006: The Motor Press Guild (MPG), America's largest professional automotive media association, today announces the winners of its most prestigious honor, The Dean Batchelor Award and the MPG Best of the Year Awards winners. These five awards recognize automotive journalistic excellence across several different disciplines, including articles, books, photography, and audio/visual. Entries were judged against others in their respective category with one winner named for each category. The Dean Batchelor Award was selected from among the four category winners.

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

Article Category: Pete Lyons, "Heroes Are Human, Too," an article in Vintage Racecar magazine on former Formula 1 Champion and Indy 500 winner Graham Hill.

Book Category: Mark Christensen, "So-Cal Speed Shop," a history of the Southern California hot rod movement as told from the viewpoint of Alex Xydias who started the So-Cal Speed Shop to supply the parts and knowledge needed by hot rodders first in Los Angeles and then across the Nation.

Photography Category: Stan Papior for the photos that illustrated the Insideline.com story, "The World's Greatest Driving Road."

Audio/Visual Category: Chris Szwedo, "A Gullwing at Twilight, the Bonneville Ride of John Fitch," a documentary on the attempt of racing great, John Fitch to set a new land speed record in a 300SL Mercedes at the age of 88.

2006 Dean Batchelor Award:

Among the four top finalists, the 2006 Dean Batchelor Award was presented to Mark Christensen for his book "So-Cal Speed Shop."

For more information regarding the rules and judging of these awards, please contact Chuck Koch of the Motor Press Guild at chuckkoch@corvettethunder.com.

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, Dean 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, hot rodder. No matter what he was involved with at the time, Dean 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 Award singles out persons demonstrating outstanding achievement in automotive journalism and communications.