Motorsport Ireland is pleased to announce positive updates with regards to both Young Driver of the Year Awards following their suspension last year. However, there will be slight differences to previous years, please find these outlined below.

Young Racing Driver of the Year (Sexton Trophy)
Open to all drivers who hold an MI Race Licence for 2021 and are under 23 years of age on 1st January 2021, and fall within the criteria laid out in Appendix 17 of the Motorsport Ireland Yearbook.
The award will be for the 2022 season and will amount €50,000 for the overall winner, together with participation in a training and development programme.

The section for the award is in two parts. Firstly six eligible competitors will be nominated by a panel nominated by the Motorsport Council. Then the nominated six will make a submission and be interviewed by a panel of 5 people appointed by Motorsport Ireland.  This panel will make the final decision for the award. One or more of the interviewees not selected for the overall award may be nominated for participation the training and development programme. 

To assist the selection panel in choosing the six nominees you are invited to complete THIS FORM which must be submitted no later than Friday October 22nd 2021.

Young Rally Driver of the Year (Billy Coleman Award)
Due to the Covid restrictions prevailing throughout 2021 limiting the amount of competition that could be held, for a second year in a row the Billy Coleman Award will not be presented.

The present Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy group are in place since the awards process in 2019 and have benefited from this over the last two years. It is proposed to select a new group for the 2022 season rather than giving the award to one individual and the process for that is laid out in the recently updated Appendix 16 of the Motorsport Ireland Yearbook.

As with the Sexton Award, eligible competitors will self-nominate themselves by completing THIS FORM which must be submitted no later than Friday November 12th 2021.