– The American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence (AMMAOE) and award sponsor Goodyear Racing are proud to announce the recipient of the 2024 honor – long-time journalist and television personality Dave Despain.
Dave began his broadcasting career calling high school football games in his native Iowa in the early 1960s. He later combined his love for motorcycle racing with his burgeoning career and landed a job on ABC’s Wide World of Sports coverage of the Daytona 200 in 1975. From there, Dave went on to work with Motor Racing Network and CBS, which led to him being selected to host the first weekly television show devoted exclusively to racing highlights, “Motorweek Illustrated.” Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, Dave was seen by millions of race fans on ESPN’s “Thursday Night Thunder” and NASCAR pre-race show, as well as Speedvision’s “NASCAR Today.” He followed that up with a successful, 11-year run on Speed’s “Wind Tunnel,” before concluding his broadcasting career on MAVTV in 2017. All totaled, Dave informed and entertained race fans of all genres for 42 amazing years. He is the 44th media member honored with the AMMAOE.
First awarded
to longtime
Associated
Press motorsports writer Bloys Britt in 1969, the AMMAOE is administered and voted on by fellow motorsports journalists, all of whom are previous AMMAOE recipients. In recent years the award has gone to print, broadcast and photojournalists representing varying disciplines of motorsports across the United States.
Originally, the award was named for the late Henry T. McLemore, one of the first journalists to cover motorsports. He had a long career as a sports columnist for United Press International and was a syndicated columnist for Hearst newspapers. He became acquainted with NASCAR and Bill France Sr., who encouraged him to first attend, then cover the growing sport of stock car racing. The membership voted in 2020 to rename the award the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence to more clearly identify itself as a national journalism organization focused on all forms of motorsports.
Two award boards displaying plaques with etched representations of each winner are on permanent display inside the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America at Daytona International Speedway.
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LIST OF AMMAOE RECIPIENTS
1969 Bloys Britt Associated Press
1970 Bob Myers Charlotte News/Circle Track
1971 Ray Marquette Indianapolis Star
1973 Chris Economaki National Speed Sport News/CBS/ABC
1974 Joe Dowdall Detroit News
1975 Ken Squier CBS-TV
1977 Shav Glick Los Angeles Times
1978 Benny Phillips High Point Enterprise
1980 Tom Higgins Charlotte Observer
1981 Barney Hall Motor Racing Network
1982 Dick Berggren Stock Car Racing Magazine
1984 George Cunningham Atlanta Journal
1985 Mike Harris Associated Press
1986 Randy Hallman The Richmond News Leader
1987 Dick Mittman Indianapolis Star
1989 Steve Waid Roanoke Times/NASCAR Scene
1992 Deb Williams UPI/NASCAR Scene
1993 Eli Gold Motor Racing Network/TNN
1994 Godwin Kelly Daytona Beach News-Journal
1998 Gerald Martin Raleigh News & Observer
1999 Ned Jarrett Motor Racing Network/CBS
2001 Bob Jenkins ESPN
2002 Sandy McKee Baltimore Sun
2003 Al Pearce Daily Press/Auto Week
2004 Larry Woody Nashville Tennessean
2005 T. Taylor Warren NASCAR Photographer
2007 Mike Hembree NASCAR Scene
2010 Ken Willis Daytona Beach News-Journal
2011 Mike Joy MRN/CBS/TNN/TBS/FOX
2012 Kenny Bruce NASCAR Scene
2013 Thomas Pope Fayetteville Observer
2014 David Poole Charlotte Observer
2015 Lenny Sammons Area Auto Racing News
2016 Pat Singer Area Auto Racing News/Philadelphia Journal
2017 Holly Cain NASCAR.com/TampaTribune
2018 Robin Miller RACER Magazine/NBCSN
2019 Sam Posey Auto Week/ABC
2020 Bob Pockrass FOX Sports
2021 Bones Bourcier Freelance
Pete Lyons Photographer
2022 Bob Varsha ESPN
Jonathan Ingram Freelance
2023 Benny Kahn Daytona Beach News Journal
2024 Dave Despain ABC/CBS/NBC/ESPN/MAVTV/Speed/TNN/TBS
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