Sunday’s Autosport Awards ceremony, held annually at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, celebrates the great and the good of the motorsport year, but for one junior driver, it was one of the most important nights of his young life as he became the winner of the 2009 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver award.

This year’s ceremony marked the 20th anniversary of the first-ever Young Driver awards – an annual competition that tests and evaluates a select pool of the year’s most promising junior drivers. On Sunday night, Dean Smith became the lucky finalist and became the overall winner to take plaudits, funding and a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 test drive.

“It is 20 years since I became the first recipient of the McLaren Autosport Young Driver award,” says David Coulthard, “and you only have to look at the winners since then to see that it has proven very successful in spotting talent. The award boasts champions in Formula 1, IRL, and both sports and touring cars. Even now, it’s an award that carries with it a huge amount of importance, honour and prestige – and which is still prized above all others by every young driver competing in the junior ranks of British motorsport.”

“I’m tremendously proud to be a member of a very select club that reads like a Who’s Who of British motor racing talent, including people like Dario Franchitti, Gary Paffett, Anthony Davidson, Paul di Resta and the reigning British world champion Jenson Button. And I’m proud that, although I personally represent the award’s roots, it’s not something that causes us to look back at the past: the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award has always represented motorsport’s future – and that’s why it remains so vital.”

Smith won the Formula Renault Championship in 2009 and was awarded his prize by 2009 champion and new McLaren driver, Jenson Button, 2008 champion and current McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and former champion Damon Hill. Now he is hoping to contest the GP3 series in 2010 and the 50,000 pounds prize money will go toward helping with the budget.