What is the ideal 21st birthday present? A new outfit, a beach holiday or even a new car? Or how about an £80,000-worth race seat for a season’s racing in 2009?

Turning 21 is a big deal; you leave your teenager years behind to start your adult life. “I really could not wait to turn 21,” says VX Racing’s touring car driver Tom Onslow-Cole. “Suddenly everyone treats you differently as if you would have done all the growing-up over night and have become a different person.

“I had a fantastic 21st birthday. It fell on a Friday and I was at a circuit all weekend for the latest British touring car meeting. Apart from the usual presents and jokes from my colleagues, I secured pole position on Saturday and I earned two race wins on Sunday. Fancy that for a 21st birthday bash?”

You could find yourself in Tom’s racing shoes thanks to a nationwide search to uncover Britain’s racing driver talents. This is your chance to out-shine your friends by getting an extra present in your 21st year: a fully-funded race seat in a motorsport championship in Britain.

All you have to do is be 21 or more, have a UK driving licence and never have raced professionally before, then simply visit vxrdriver.co.uk and fill in the short questionnaire and assessment test for your chance to become a professional racing driver.

The competition is open until the 27 June 2008. From all entries 1,620 successful applicants will be put through their paces in the karting semi-finals before 15 finalists are selected for the intensive three-day final, which will decide the 2008 VXR Racing Driver of the Year.