Since his first track day in November 2013, Chris had been going with me to NASA weekends, as much as he could afford time away from work and school. He had gradually worked himself up to HPDE Group 4 (advanced).
In late June (he had recently graduated from high school) came to me and asked, “Do you remember when you said if I graduated with a good enough GPA, that you’d buy me a new(er) car?”
I replied, “Yes.”
To which he asked “Did you mean it?”
I replied “Yes.”
Then he asked “Well, did I do well enough?”
I thought about it, and I felt that his 3.0 GPA plus playing sports plus having a part-time job (20 hrs/wk) qualified, so I said “Yes.”
Then, he said “OK. I want a race car!”
Now, it was time to back-peddle. “I didn’t say I’d buy you a race car.”
“Well, you didn’t say you wouldn’t!” (Note to self: be careful how you phrase offers in the future)
To which I replied “Well, you don’t’ even have your racing license. You don’t need a race car until you have that.”
I thought that might be the end of it.
I was wrong.