As a young man, I had a dream of speed and travel and independence. In my mind, I could see myself traveling the country, towing a car trailer and race car behind a motorhome, going from race to race to race, living as a vagabond racer.
But life moved on. I got a job, got married, bought a house. The years piled up, one on top of the other. There were kids, and promotions at work, and, eventually, a business of my own. Even so, the dream never died. It was just put away, with hopes that it could be realized someday in the future. Someday.
I would stop once in a while to pull the dream out and consider it, but just because I stopped, that didn’t mean time did. I got older, got divorced, and worked on other dreams, while my dream of racing stayed packed away, always present, waiting.
At some point a few years ago—or maybe it was dozens of years ago. Sometimes it’s hard to tell—I realized that my dream of traveling the country and racing wasn’t going to happen. I was too old, racing was too expensive, the dream just wasn’t realistic.
Then, along came sim racing.
What if I lived my dream of racing all over the country, but never had to leave home? What if I could race any car in the world, in just about any form of auto racing imaginable? What if I didn’t have to spend money on a motorhome, gas, a trailer, race car parts and repairs? What if I could realize my dream of being a vagabond racer virtually, through sim racing?
There’s no more need to wait on my dream. The opportunity is here. The time is now. I am a virtual vagabond racer.
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Welcome to Vagabond Racer. My name is Lou Mindar and I’m a wannabe race car driver. Actually, I did race for several years. I raced in amateur road racing events, primarily in the Southeastern United States, with SCCA, ChampCar, and a couple of other organizations. But I wanted to go pro. And more than anything, I wanted to spend my time on the road, going from one race to another, a different track each weekend. Sim racing is allowing me to do just that.
Away from sim racing, I am a business owner and an author. I’ve written a few books–all fiction–including Driven: A Novel, a book about the intersection of sports car racing and drug smuggling that takes place in the early 1980’s. If you decide to pick up a copy, let me know. Happy Reading!