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Gregor Grant Award: Jackie Stewart

Sir Jackie Stewart is the recipient of a Gregor Grant Award at the AUTOSPORT Awards in recognition of his lifetime achievements in motorsport

Autosport Awards

The Autosport Awards are a series of awards presented by motor racing magazine Autosport to drivers that have achieved significant milestones each season. Some of the presentations are selected by the general public via a reader's poll.

The three-time Formula 1 World Champion collected his award from another title winner, Damon Hill, the man who succeeded him as president of the British Racing Drivers' Club.

"I knew Gregor, another Scot and a great storyteller,well, so to get this award is an honour," said Stewart.

"More exciting for me than history though, is this current generation of drivers. It's the best in my opinion since you had me, Jochen [Rindt], Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, John Surtees. All of them."

After making his name in hillclimbing and sportscar racing domestically, a young Stewart attracted the attention of Ken Tyrrell, who ran him to a dominant F3 campaign in 1964 and put him into the F1 shop window.

A grand prix drive with BRM for '65 made him a winner, but it was a return to Tyrrell that allowed him to become world champion in Matra machinery in '69 and then twice in cars bearing the team owner's name in '71 and '73.

The US GP of 1973 would have been his 100th and final grand prix start, but he instead elected to miss the race after his team-mate Francois Cevert was killed in qualifying.

During nine years in F1 he won 27 grands prix, an all-time record that would stand until Alain Prost beat it in 1987, scored 17 pole positions and won three world titles.

As significant as his achievements on-track were those off it as an avid safety campaigner at a time when such an attitude was frowned upon by his contemporaries.

It is no coincidence that the number of deaths in F1 has shrunk considerably under his influence.

After a number of years working as a broadcaster and in the automotive industry, set up Paul Stewart Racing with his son Paul, which became the dominant force in British F3 and Formula Vauxhall during the 1990s and also a race-winner in F3000.

That success provided the foundations for a graduation into F1 in 1997.

Stewart Grand Prix competed for three years and famously steered Johnny Herbert to victory in the European Grand Prix of 1999 before being sold to Ford, which rebranded the team as Jaguar Racing.

Stewart knighted in 2001 and since then has acted as BRDC president, a global ambassador for Williams partner RBS and as a representative of many charities worldwide.

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