For a while, I've been hinting at having some big news. Throughout the last couple of announcements, I've actually still been sat on it contrary to popular belief that I'd already spilled it in the form of the TCR UK Commentary opportunity at Silverstone. While that was a fantastic gig to secure - and with no disrespect to the series or anyone involved - it was the tip of the iceberg to what's been negotiated behind the scenes.
Some people that I've spoken to recently know of my rise into the real-world commentary industry in a bit more detail, after all I've only been doing it for two and a half months and covered some great events, despite only having two years of sim racing commentary under my belt before that. I believed it to just be one big fluke, being in a position where I'm getting offered gigs every weekend, but there have been two massive things happen for me recently that have highlighted my progress and made me realise that - at the risk of tooting my own horn very bluntly - I'm doing something right.
The first of which is the fact that I am now in a position to leave full time employment and make the most of commentary that I can, as my full time occupation. In fact, today is my last day working at my full time job - my employers have been incredibly understanding and supportive of my ventures in commentary and I cannot thank them enough. This alone is massive, as it's a major step towards living my dream.
The second thing is about 75% of the reason behind the name of this post, because even now, less than 24 hours before I head to the location of this event, I can't believe that after exactly 900 days as a sim racing commentator and the aforementioned short period of circuit commentary, I'll be a voice on one of the motorsport world's biggest races.
So, let me type this out carefully and slowly...
I am going to be commentating on the world feed for the 2020 Total 24 Hours of the Nurburgring.
Yeah.
The real life one.
At the circuit.
In real life.
Snape kills Dumbledore.
A lot of you will know that I've been working with David Addison on the British Boring Car Championship and that he was involved in getting me into the commentary box at Thruxton for the BRSCC's meeting there and - as you can imagine - has experienced a lot of clashes between series, brought about by the new, compressed racing calendar. This opportunity has come around because of said clashes as he's commentated the event for the last four years. I'll be joining Brian Oliver who has done a lot of GT-based commentary in Germany, including the ADAC GT Masters series which races over there a lot.
I'm so grateful for this chance and will do everything in my power to bring my usual entertaining, quick-witted yet informative commentary to the viewers. I cannot thank David enough as well as those that have supported me in doing what I do from day one. To have earned the confidence of people I have idolised for years is just another massive piece to the puzzle.
I'm flying out to Germany tomorrow - Thursday the 24th of September - and will be spending a lot of time getting to know the teams and drivers ahead of the event, while taking in the action as the motorsport fan that still very much lives inside me.
I'm afraid that I won't be on the UK YouTube feed - that'll be Radio Le Mans. The feed I'm on is often broadcast in English to German channels and potentially other countries. If I hear that anything changes meaning you'll be able to hear me, I'll be sure to share a link.