Harleys 18th Birthday at Santa Pod

As 18th birthdays go, I think we can say Harleys was a huge success & ticked a few boxes too ✔️🏁🎉🖤🤍🧡🎉🏁

Harley said a while ago that he wanted to take all of the weight off his Junior once his last season was over & run it to see what it would do. As luck would have it there was a RWYB on his actual 18th so he said he would like to spend the day at Pod race his Junior & have a few friends around for a bit of a party.
So being the great parents we are lol, that's what we arranged 😉
We told a few friends what he wanted to do & that's when The Marras approached us & said would Harley like them to bring Wrathchild for him to have a go in?
Hell yes we thought but checked with him just to make sure it wouldn't be a wasted journey 😁
Yes was the answer from Harley, oh dear was the reaction from Mom 😬
Friday 13th was a horrible day so we were hoping for a much better, dryer day & thankfully that's what we got 😁 A sunny day with blue sky & white fluffy clouds ⛅️ Up early & set up the pit with all 3 cars under 1 gazebo & another for the party area. Once set up, the birthday boy & Ada set off for the 1st run.
He only pulled a .001 reaction!!! Why couldn't he have done that all year in Qualifying 🤔😬🤨🤭🤣 typical Harley 🤣 He ran 7.85 @ 80.79mph so a bit faster but maybe not as fast as he'd have liked 😁
Next run for Ada & this time against Meg Talbot in Bandit 1 😎 Not new to the 1/8th mile but used to doing it on 2 wheels not 4! She drove it like she stole it pulled quite a wheelie for a Junior, a .015 light & recording Bandit 1's best ever of 7.63 @ 83mph!! Go Meg 🏁😁🏁

Next in Bandit 1 was a nervous Liv Forth who had never been down the track before!! Brought into stage by equally nervous boyfriend Tom Kaye, she staged the car beautifully and ran an extremely respectful 8.06 @79mph 🎉 Go Liv, you did a fabulous job & we were all very proud of you 😍

And now it's Harleys turn in Wrathchild - gulps from Mom 😬 He started off with the warm up then had a little drive around in the empty pits to get familiar with the new seat. Off to the pairing lanes we went. The smiling Marras fired Harley up & off he went to the startline. After a few attempts at staging due to a cold Wrathchild and a nervous right foot, he was off! I looked around and the smiles from Dad, Steve, Marras & TCA were just as big when he pulled 2nd gear as they were when he went through the finish line 😆 We all (& there were a lot of us 😄) went crazy, jumping up and down and cheering like we'd won the lottery 😂😍😎 He did it 🏁🏁 11.74 @121mph 😀

The day just got better, the sun kept shining & we kept racing. Jack Gooding was up next in Bandit 1. He was running his Rocco but wanted another chance to take a Junior up the track. He drove it like a pro, like riding a bike 😆

Ada was having a fab day racing against so many different people that she'd never raced before 😊 If only it was a competition as Cherry Bomb was super consistent with 3 almost identical runs, typical 😄

Harley had 2 more runs with a best of 11.18 @124mph. His last run started with a HUGE burnout, encouraged by the Marras & enjoyed by us all 😂😎 & he pulled the chute just to complete the set 😀

I think we can safely say that Harley had a great day on the track 😀

So now onto the party 🥳🥳

There was the usual bbq, presents, cake, beer etc and then the 'obligatory' lol, Twister, Splat the Rat & even Play Your Cards Right which got a little bit competitive, didn't it Tom Kaye 😂

A great time was had by all and we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who came and made it such a special day for Harley 😍