Motor Press Guild Announces 2009 Dean Batchelor Award Winners

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 9, 2009 -- The Los Angeles-based Motor Press Guild (MPG) announced its 2009 Dean Batchelor Award and Best of the Year winners today. Established in 1995, the Dean Batchelor Award recognizes excellence in automotive journalism as exemplified by the man it is named after-the late Dean Batchelor.

The 2009 Dean Batchelor Award goes to Keith Cossrow and Bennett Viseltear for their video production, Truth in 24 from NFL films. This in-depth television documentary highlights the Audi effort at the 2008 24 Hours of LeMans, the world's longest and most grueling closed course sports car race.

Each year MPG presents the Dean Batchelor Award to the journalist(s) judged to have produced the single piece of work which best represents the professional standards and excellence in their respective category 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 Best of the Year category winners are:

  --  Best Article: The Joy of Slow, by Preston Lerner, Automobile Magazine,
      March 2009
  --  Best Book: The Brothers Rodriguez, Carlos Eduardo Jalife-Villalon,
      David Bull Publishing
  --  Best Photography: Drifting, by Alison (Al) Merion, driftlive.com

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

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.