Let's Keep the family intact

[John Cody Forbes]

I hadn't yet unsubscribed. I figured I'd just not check my email until today 
and see if I was still in the same mindset. Here's the whole picture so you 
can understand where I was when I read Huw's message:

Racing has been a passion of mine since before I could talk; my father raced 
IMSA and I grew up at tracks, but I haven't raced in over 10 years. In fact 
Audi club HPDE events and, starting about two years ago, have been able to 
drive a couple times per year. The first time I drove the GMP S3 at an event 
I set a lap time more than two seconds faster than it's owner/driver who had 
driven it to the NASA-SE championship. Finally, after repeating this in 
multiple cars against multiple drivers, I was offered a job driving a car at 
a track; GMP wishes to pay me to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports 
Ultimate Track Car Challenge this summer. The caveat is that in order to do 
that I need a new competition license as my SCCA license expired over 10 
years ago. The trouble is that I'm supporting my family with my entire 
salary and have little for myself and no car to drive.

Then my second lucky break. The car pictured in the contest is owned my a 
previous customer of mine. He contacted me earlier this year with an offer. 
Since I left the shop where I had built the car for him he had been having 
trouble finding somebody to properly maintain the car for him. My current 
shop isn't in that market so he couldn’t bring it here. He made a proposal: 
I may have the car to use as my own, as well as it's tow rig, provided that 
I maintained the car (nights/weekends) and did track support for him when he 
wanted to go run. It needed a lot of hours to bring it back up snuff, but I 
agreed and put the time in.

Now I've got the car,  but still no budget to run it. My shop hosts two 
track days per year which I can run for free, the first of which being where 
the picture used in the contest was taken. The car owner offered to have me 
drive it with him in two enduro's this year which is a start. Earlier this 
year I started putting away some money and working overtime to try to save 
up for an event. I had finally saved enough to go to the event at Road 
Atlanta two weeks from now which has the Comp School to get my racing 
license back, and the very last one taking place in time for me to be able 
to accept that paid drive. About 3 weeks ago there was an emergency at home 
and that money needed to be spent.

Then I was notified of this contest. My last ditch effort. I did everything 
I could to beg for votes. In the end I lost by SIX votes (not 36 as had been 
reported here).  Interestingly another list that I'm on, which is composed 
mostly of ex-quattro listers that didn't want to be here anymore, had 
specifically requested that I post updates on the tally from time to time. 
Also, for the record, the q-list didn't net anywhere near 100 votes as had 
been said. It was closer to 25.  So with 9 minutes to go as I watched my 
lead, as well as my dreams, shrink away and I posted one last message out of 
desperation. About 15 minutes after I lost I received Huw's message. I don't 
understand where he was coming from; clearly when I stated in the message 
which he replied to that there were 9 minutes left logic says that there 
would be little to no further posts, yet he still felt the need to issue his 
reply.

At the time of my reply I was completely crushed. My chance at fulfilling my 
lifelong dream had been dashed. Looking at the tally I had seen that, beyond 
the relatively small percentage of this list and others that voted, over 60 
friends of mine didn't vote which was insulting. Huw's reply, while in that 
state of mind, was infuriating. Coupled together with the frustration I have 
recently known with one or two other members it seemed like the best option 
at the time. The subject line here suggesting that we are a big Audi loving 
family feels like a joke after getting a response like that to the very most 
genuine need of help that I've ever posted here. I was sick of getting 
off-list replies saying "Don't worry about xxxx, he's just a jerk" relating 
to about a half dozen conversations recently and, as I said before, a couple 
different people to insert as "xxxx".


Since Saturday morning I have gotten a few emails and phone calls that have 
been very nice. The organizer of the contest was impressed by my efforts (as 
well as those of the winner) enough that he has offered me some money 
towards the event as a consolation prize. My father and a couple racing 
friends got together and took care of the rest, so now I still get to go, 
and I still get to have my first and potentially only chance at the 
possibility of a start to a career as a pro driver.

I've read through all of the replies and personal messages you all sent and 
I'm very grateful. Thank you to everybody that voted and shared to try to 
help me out, I appreciate it very much. My knee jerk reaction while in a 
rough state of mind was wrong and I apologize. If anybody has any more input 
or would like to continue this conversation please join me on 
offtopic at audifans.com (subscribe via Audifans.com) so we aren't clogging up 
the big list any longer. I think I'm the only member on it so come keep me 
company ;-).


Thanks guys,
-Cody

-----Original Message----- 
From: Britt Crowell
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2013 2:37 AM
To: John Cody Forbes
Cc: quattro at audifans.com ; charles.g.cannon4.civ at mail.mil
Subject: Let's Keep the family intact

Cody!
Hey man, don’t leave the Audi list. Unless you were looking for a reason.
I might need some help with my A8 transmission issues.
It's too bad I didn't get your message sooner, I could have blasted my FB 
friends.
I don’t usually get in to that crap, but I'm all about helping a fellow Audi 
guy.
I still think 24-26V would be ok, but if you want to argue about it sometime 
I invite you over for an AAA (Aviation Amber Ale) it's still in the 
secondary fermentor, but should be ready soon.
I'm sure it sucked to loose on such a close margin, but then again I just 
wish I had a track car to play in, much less a 911 with a Chevy.
Don’t mind Huw...I think he might be fighting senility, the Quattro list has 
been dead for months anyway.

OH FUCK IT NOW IM ADDING THE QUATTRO LIST TOO! (and a guy from work, I'll 
have to explain it to him now)

I'M BRITT CROWELL!
I'M FORTY YEARS OLD!
I'M GROWN!

(it’s a work thing)