Toyota-sponsored Guild Award boosts young motoring journalists

If you are a young journalist trying to make their way in motoring journalism, winning a prestigious award with a cash prize will certainly be a help – as will a year’s complimentary membership of the much respected professional body for motoring journalists.

All these are on offer to the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers Young Journalist of the Year Award, which is generously sponsored by Toyota UK. However aspiring entrants need to act quickly if they want to enter as entries close at midnight this coming Tuesday, 30^th September.

The GOMW Toyota Young Journalist of the Year Award will be presented alongside the GOMW/MICA Young PR Professional of the Year Award, at the Guild’s annual Dinner in London in December. The winner receives a trophy, a £500 prize and one year’s complimentary membership of the Guild.

The Young Journalist of the Year Award is open to all journalists aged under 30 – they do not have to be Guild members to qualify. Judges will be looking for work that exhibits a combination of thorough research and well-crafted journalism.

The Award has seen some notable winners over the years who have gone on to make major contributions to the automotive media industry, not least 2020-22 Guild Chair Richard Aucock, the first winner and now a director of respected agency Motoring Research.

In 2024 the Award went to Ryan Standen, for his fabulous story published in Classic & Sports Car on an infamous Lotus Carlton that was used in a series of ram raids in the 1990s – a car so quick it easily outran the police. The story was forensically researched and featured not only the original owner’s replacement Lotus Carlton, but also a period police Rover SD1.

Full details of how to enter the award and the rules are on the Awards page of the Guild website at www.gomw.co.uk/awards – details of the requirements of all the other awards are also on the web page.

Entrants will have until midnight on 30^th September to make their entries. Three entrants will be shortlisted, each receiving a complimentary invitation to the black-tie Guild Dinner at the RAC Club in Pall Mall, London in December, when the winner will be announced.

Photo shows Toyota Senior Press Officer David Crouch presenting the 2024 Young Journalist Award to Ryan Standen.