"If you had told me three months ago that I'd be racing along with the likes of them, I'd have laughed you off the street".
'Them', for Irishman Éamonn Murphy this weekend, are some of the greatest living drivers, all competing in the Virtual Le Mans across the next 24 hours.
Former F1 drivers like Fernando Alonso, Jensen Button, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Rubens Barrichello are joined by current F1 stars Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Antonio Giovinazzi, and Stoffel Vandoorne in a star studded grid at the virtual French circuit.
For Murphy, whose sim racing career has been gaining since first taking up the sport after returning from Australia a few years ago, it's an incredible experience, signed as a temporary driver for the Veloce eSports car.
"To even be involved is a huge privilege, and I'm sure there's a lot of other guys Simracing who wished they had the same spot as me.
"You want to do as best as you can as well because there's such a crossnover now, you're starting to see people move from simracing into actual motorsport now as well.
Brilliant qualifying by @svandoorne to put our car P6 on the grid for tomorrows #LeMans24Virtual 💪💪
Long race ahead but lets see what we can convert that into 🙂 https://t.co/Z7DvHRdT7C— Eamonn Murphy (@EamonnPMurphy) June 12, 2020
"So you want to impress as much as you can, to many people, in as short as time as possible, so I'm going to try and do that!"
Éamonn was speaking to Kevin Galvin on this week's SportsBeat Xtra, which also featured Waterford Triathlete Kieran Jackson, speaking about his disappointing end to the Cycling Ireland Zwift League, and the current restrictions which are impeding elite athlete's progress in Ireland.
