For your standards,(from what I've seen) its pretty good. You have to balance out your background. The right has more because of the paint splatters, maybe tone those down.
For a first sig, this is great...of course I'm just comparing it to my first sig.Try to work on lighting and try to keep the text closer together. And good call on keeping the text clean and simple. Most people who try to make a sig for the first time will look for some crazy text they think...
His name definitely deserves to be mentioned in the race. And in my opinion hes barely out of first for that. Especially after last months performance.