Rich Eklund, world famous sim racer, was introduced to the iRacing world by friend Dylan Murcott in 2011. Since then, Eklund is a two-time world champion.

Racing for legitimate prizes didn’t begin until Eklund joined an iRacing league dedicated to competing with the Mazda MX-5 in the spring of 2013, nearly a year after joining the iRacing service.

22 years old, the world-class sim-racer from Germantown, New York, has primarily raced from home. But if last year’s performances by iRacing champs Evan Maillard and Steven Diem are any sign, Rich should get up to speed in the 2016 MX-5 Cup car quickly.

“From the time I saw my first Formula 1 race when I was about seven years old, all I wanted to ever be was a racing driver,” says Eklund. “Now thanks to iRacing and Mazda I have the opportunity to potentially realize my dreams, and for that I am truly grateful.  I’m really looking forward to representing iRacing, along with Glenn McGee, against some of the best up-and-coming racers in the country next week at Carolina Motorsports Park.”

For those interested in following in Eklund’s footsteps, he posts MX-5 tutorials on various tracks in iRacing on YouTube. His channel contains six different MX-5 tutorial videos with a combined total of nearly 65,000 views, and the most popular single video has accumulated over 19,000 alone. Recently, his channel reached the 1,000 subscriber mark even without promoting the channel.