POMONA, CA – The Motor Press Guild (MPG), the largest automotive media association in North America, presented longtime Wally Parks NHRA Motorsport Museum Curator Greg Sharp with the prestigious 2012 Dean Batchelor Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism in the Best of the Year articles category at the 18th annual Dean Batchelor Awards Banquet held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles last night. 

Sharp received the special award for his editorial piece, “The World’s Fastest Hot Rod” published in the 2012 spring issue of The Rodder’s Journal. The article provides insight into the car and people involved in the history and recreation by Dan Webb of the Xydias and Batchelor So-Cal Speed Shop streamliner.

“It’s an incredible honor to receive the Dean Batchelor Award,” Sharp said. “Dean was one of those people I looked up to and read about as a kid. I got to know both Dean and his partner Alex Xydias in the early ‘70s. Although he probably didn’t realize it, he was my mentor and made a tremendous impact on me, especially in striving for accuracy in historical writing. To win an award named for him, for an article about something he and Alex achieved over sixty years ago is just overwhelming.”

Established in 1995 by MPG, the Dean Batchelor Awards recognize the professional standards and excellence demanded by Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry.

 “The NHRA Motorsports Museum is thrilled to see curator Greg Sharp receive recognition for his outstanding efforts in documenting the pursuit of speed in all its forms,” NHRA Museum Executive Director Larry Fisher said. “We congratulate him on his achievement and we are proud of his many contributions as curator of the museum.”

Sharp’s love affair with hot rodding began when he was a highly curious “car crazy” 12-year-old who devoured the pocket-sized enthusiast magazines of the 1950s. Absorbing their contents like a sponge, he has since become an expert on the history of hot rodding and virtually all forms of motorsports.

After serving for 28 years as a motorcycle officer with the LAPD, Greg retired in 1995 and became director of the recently developed NHRA Historical Services. There, he played a key role in the formation of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum and has served as curator since it opened to the public in April, 1998. Sharp’s keen attention to historical detail and colorful prose continues to be read in the Museum’s Reunion programs as well as on the cars and exhibits at the NHRA Museum including the current Moon: Six Decades of a Hot Rodding Eye-Con.

The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California is an independent California non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to celebrating the impact of motorsports on American culture. Neighboring the historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the Museum collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets the vehicles, stories and artifacts that represent America’s affection for, and the influence of, automotive speed and style in all its forms. For more information, visit our website:www.nhramuseum.org.