Wow, it's been way to long since my last blog, but life has just been chaos with the usual juggling of work, the house, the kids, school, school holidays and of course all things racing for the Harris boys, so sit tight and grab a cuppa - this is a long one ...
I'll take us all the way back to May when Cruz was invited to officially open Leicester Speedway's brand new mini track and etched his name into the history books. Cruz received the invitation way back in February when Chris was in the USA. It was a long time coming for our excited 4 year old who had taken photo copies of the Leicester press release to preschool for all of his friends, and who has no real concept of time other than he is almost as impatient as Chris - anyone who knows Chris well will 100% know what i mean lol.
The day arrived and it was bank holiday Monday and we had a very excited little champ who spent all day asking 'is it time to go yet' and every parent knows the pain just like when you get 'are we there yet' five minutes into a 4 hour journey. Finally it was time, and from the moment we arrived you could feel the buzz and Cruz was so excited the build up was like a chapter from a story book. From the camera crews filming our boy to the photographers catching the moments was just surreal. Whilst Cruz impatiently waited we stood on turn 1 and he spent the time having selfies with fans (still sounds strange to say out loud) and pestering the man in charge of the drone for discovery+ - as well as bikes, he is drone obsessed and often flies his own out on the field. 6.50pm hit and it was finally time for me to take Cruz to the pits to get ready for his big moment, he took my hand and marched me to the pits where he'd bagged himself his own pit bay and said 'that's because i am rider' i couldn't help but smile. It was finally time, and we watched on as the commentators introduced him to the crowd and he rode through the ribbon and officially opened the track to a rapturous applause of the crowd who were all chanting his name, he decided to entertain the crowd standing up and a bit of his one handed swag and proudly finished his moment by bowing and waving to the crowd. Everyone could see the pride in Chris's face as well as my own and of course my tears, i know we are biased but what an absolute star, he took it all in his stride and anybody that has seen him at a track or on socials can see how much this boy loves it!
It's now the first weekend of June and Chris has travelled to Edinburgh, then Redcar and then a long drive to Germany for the European Grasstrack Championship Semi Final 1 in Bielefield where he finished P2 and secured his place in the Final.
Then it was then on to the British Final at Belle Vue - again (as a speedway fan myself it's pretty tedious now, just like when it was always at Wolverhampton) - no disrespect to BV, but I genuinely think they need to pick the track out of a hat every year, or do like the other countries and hold the event over 3 rounds. I mean this year even had riders pulling out of the line up because it was being held at BV again and many riders have made it clear in interviews etc they would like it to move elsewhere or held over more rounds. Like always though, he done himself (and us) proud getting to the final and he gave it his all - Chris was obviously disappointed by missing out on the podium and a place at Cardiff - it just wasn't to be this time, but after he was screwed over in 2022 (Chris's book one day will be a good one) and just missing out on the final but winning the Nigel Pearson award last year - I genuinely felt he deserved this one.
Quickly followed was an invite from Kyle Howarth for Cruz to open his testimonial meeting at Sheffield. He completed a few laps around Owlerton before the main event in front of a welcoming crowd who cheered him on whilst Chris and Mia-Faye proudly watched on and filmed his 'moment' whilst me & Amara-Mae stayed home. Chris top scored in the main event with 12 pts and won 4/5 rides, and then took the win in the 'Dash for Cash' race.
I followed on updates whilst also enjoying some mummy and daughter time with a trip to Kaspas dessert bar and reading a few chapters of Matilda. We managed to watch some of the races a bit later on thanks to the Bend 2 Barmy Army who sent across some videos of Chris doing his thing and Cruz opening the show.
The next few weeks were filled with the usual hustle and bustle of work and school and general life and lots of demonstration laps for Cruz, and lots of league meetings for Chris for Oxford, Glasgow and Vargana in Sweden as well as Chris securing his place in the 2025 World Long Track Championship with a great result in the Long Track Challenge in Muhldorf, Germany.
Then it was a little bit of ‘me’ time and a mid-week night out with friends to Resorts World in Birmingham to watch Girls Aloud where we sang and danced the night away which was much needed, and good preparation for what was coming two days later - Taylor Swift. I was lucky enough to get a code for tickets for Taylor Swift at Wembley and purchased 2 VIP tickets for myself and Mia-Faye as special treat. The day arrived and Chris was racing in Glasgow, and my parents had travelled up from Cornwall to look after the little ones.
I built up the courage to get the train straight to Wembley after debating for weeks how to get there, where to park, what to do and if we needed to stay over. We got ready and put on our Swiftie bracelets (IYKYK) along with our VIP lanyards and off we went. The train was pretty straight forward Warwick Parkway direct to Wembley with just a short walk to the Stadium. The atmosphere was amazing with everyone in full Swiftie mode singing and dancing, with sparkles, cowboy boots and bracelets for as far as the eye could see. We headed to the underground car park for the Merchandise - the largest and busiest Merchandise stall i have ever seen and Mia-Faye bagged herself some goodies as well as matching cowboy hats for us. Taylor took to the stage just after 7pm to an immense applause from over 88k people - it was insane and loud, honestly never witnessed anything like it. 3 hours of her best hits followed from 1989 to Midnights through to The Tortured Poets department - we danced and sang the night away together and made such lovely memories. We left the stadium and headed straight to the station and luckily managed to get the earlier train and were home before 1am (thanks to chivsy who convinced me i could do the train and tracked our train and stayed in touch until we safely arrived home) and Chris updated us on his night with a paid max at Glasgow with some Harris heroics to snatch the win against Berwick.
The first week of July is complete and Chris has raced every day - Monday - Oxford v Sheffield, Tuesday - Vargarna v Indianerna, Wednesday - Indianerna v Vargarna, Thursday - Oxford v Ipswich, Friday - Scunthorpe v Glasgow to then a Saturday morning flight from London Stansted to Bergerac for the European Championship Final in Tayac, France. The meeting was late on Saturday evening where he qualified straight through to the final from his 5 rides and won the final in style to become the 2024 European Champion! I stayed up late to follow the meeting live, but before the final I switched it off and waited for Chris to call. Sometimes when you can't be there in person, it's nice to wait for the phone call rather than see a result on a screen - this call was a memorable one and I could hear how happy he was and the boys in the background, so immensely proud.
It's now Friday 19th July it's the girls last day of school (Yr 1 & Yr 10) and Cruz's pre-school graduation - i'm so emotional already with all 3 finishing another chapter of their educational journey and it's not even 8am. After the usual school run, we headed straight back to watch Amara-Mae in sports day - Chris came to watch the beginning before leaving at 10am to make his way to Glasgow for a home fixture against Scunthorpe and would miss Cruz's graduation. I stood in the field for best part of 3 hours in the gorgeous sunshine (probably one of the hottest days of the year) and proudly watched on as Amara-Mae finished Year 1 having the most fun with her friends.
It was now time to head to Cruz's graduation party - luckily both girls finished at lunchtime and came to join me. As soon as i walked in the wonderful staff from Cruz's pre-school offered me a glass of fizz with a smile and said 'you look like you need one of these today and a hug' they weren't wrong. Cruz was called up to collect his graduation certificate and award and the girls were cheering him like something you would see at an American baseball game, I smiled with such pride and would you believe, my eyes were leaking lol. The party was in full swing and the kids were having a great time at the disco with the magician and of course the buffet - all 3 of our kids love food! Cruz's teacher came over and handed me some photographs of him in his graduation cap and gown and it just sent me over the edge - the tears were flowing like a river at this point.
A day full of emotions coming to an end as i sit on the sofa with a much deserved glass of fizz watching BSN and ready to follow Chris's meeting on updates due to no live stream, and as you know speedway updates is great, but always on a slight delay understandably due to the texter sending in the updates. My phone starts ringing and it's Ethan - Chris's mechanic in glasgow and I answer to Ethan who sounds panicked and out of breath and all i got out of Ethan is 'Chris has had a bad one, he's been stretchered into the ambulance it's bad, i'll call you back' I felt sick, my heart was racing and my anxiety was going through the roof as i patiently waited for Ethan or Chris to call me, usually Chris will get a message to say he's ok - but not this time. 15 minutes pass by and nothing - I try calling Chris and Ethan - to no avail, i send a couple of whatsapp messages to Chris - again to no avail - so you can imagine the panic has set in. I have friends and family messaging me 'What's happening' 'Is Chris ok' - the answers that i didn't know myself. I check social media to see if anything was happening - there's usually someone posting something especially when a crash is involved - and then there it was the post from Glasgow 'AND HE WINS HEAT 1 - Bomber out of ambulance to win the opening race within three minutes!' just as BSN announce he'd declared himself fit to ride. I sit in disbelief and shake my head at Mia-Faye - didn't know whether to laugh, cry or divorce him at this point (divorce - i'm only joking before someone starts a rumour). No word of a lie Chris then messaged me saying 'I'm ok x' as if nothing had happened, i won't tell you what i replied lol. In 'Bomber' style he went on to have a stormer of a meeting and scored 14+1, as soon as the meeting finished he sent the pictures of his knee - if you haven't seen them check them out on Chris's socials - absolutely unbelievable how he carried on riding, and more so that he had a 5.5 hour drive home on his own in a manual van - genuinely don't know how he does it - all i know is i didn't sleep until he was home safe and i spent the next day playing nurse - much to Chris's delight!
Summer holidays are in full swing and we are juggling racing, my job, life and the kids - luckily we had visits from Chris's mum Becky and my parents to help us out and of course spend some quality time with them.
We head into August with Chris taking a guest booking with Workington, and of course Cruz invited himself so off the boys went on their road trip to Cumbria with Cruz already having confirmed with the comets management that he could take to the track for some demonstration laps prior to the meeting, which he did and loved and again received the most amazing welcome from the fans. We watched the livestream as Chris went on to have a good guest appearance.
It's the day after workington and Cruz was asked a while ago to take part in some demo races on Leicesters mini track ahead of the NDLRC and Chris had been asked to present trophies. Cruz took to the track with a few other lads and won 3 races in proper Harris style - he missed the gate and came from the back working his way through to the front trying inside and outside lines - showing some great track craft, and also pulled off some trademark 'Bomber' moves - whilst the crowd were cheering his name - it's still surreal when you hear it - even more so when Cruz says 'Did you hear everyone shouting for me they were shouting Cruz i could hear them in my helmet' (If you missed the video it's over on Chris's social media dated 4th August). The NDL meeting came to a close and Chris went to present the trophies, Cruz had other ideas and basically stole his job and presented the riders with their trophies and had Chris as his 'assistant' you can't help but love him and his personality.
Another busy week of fixtures and guest bookings was to follow including a trip to Edinburgh due on the Friday then Plymouth on the Saturday (not sure who planned these two fixtures but it wasn't ideal). I decided to head down to Cornwall for a couple of days to our little holiday set-up with Amara-Mae and we would meet the boys at Plymouth. Thursday night arrived and we gatecrashed my parents so we could watch the speedway Sheffield v Ipswich where Chris was guesting for the tigers. It was a pretty good meeting and Chris had a decent night and a stormer of a race in Ht 13 to take the win. It's time for Ht 15 with Emil battling Jack H for the lead and Chris is in 3rd place, I gasped a few times when Emil looked to be out of control and said to my dad 'Emil's going to come a cropper in a minute' and then the next thing i know Emil is thrown into the fence and a like a rag doll bounces off straight into the path of Chris who had absolutely nowhere to go and down they both came, luckily Adam Ellis managed to avoid running Chris over. Amara-Mae screamed at the telly 'Daddy' as the BSN camera crews moved out of shot whilst the medics took to the track. My heart was racing and it felt like forever waiting for an update, finally Chris is up on his feet going back to the pits and Emil is being attended to in the ambulance, then Chris messaged me 'Hi x' again like nothing had happened, and then he called to say he was ok but very sore and that Emil was also ok, apart from a wound in his bum cheek from Chris's foot peg.
It was the day after and Chris was off to Edinburgh for the local derby with Glasgow. Edinburgh Monarchs Academy had contacted Chris earlier in the week to invite Cruz to take part in some demonstration races with three of their academy riders (who are all age 6+) on the 'minidale' track ahead of the meeting. The rain was pouring in Scotland but the academy riders still took to the track with Cruz, where he won all 3 rides in tricky conditions, and Chris spent some time with the youngsters and posed for photos. The main event started but didn't last long and the meeting was abandoned due to the inclement weather. So the boys now embark on the long journey back home for a few hours before the journey down south.
Saturday arrives and we met the boys at Plymouth as well as Chris's family. It's the usual scenario where Chris gets surrounded in the pits and local Cornish fans remind Chris of the good 'ol days of seeing him as a youngster at Trewlany and Exeter, and Cruz also is surrounded and happily talks to fans and obliges for photographs. Cruz made his debut around the Coliseum entertaining the crowd and finishing with a wave as he crossed the finish line. Chris broke the track record by almost a second in Ht 1 and had a good meeting. Quite a few fans came and spoke to me about the boys but quite a few asked about the girls and my blog which was nice and one even asked for my autograph. Neil Vatcher asked if Cruz would do some demo laps in-between the Youth Meeting races which was the second half, which of course he said yes!
It's a sunny hot Sunday in Cornwall (makes a change as it always rains when we are in Cornwall lol) and a well needed day off! Only one thing for it - a trip to the beach - my happy place - for some fun with the kids. We spent hours wave jumping, building sandcastles and race tracks, playing football, body boarding and of course Ice Cream. We then headed back to our holiday set up and the peaceful woodland where we enjoyed some fun on the rope swing over the river as well as the hammocks between the trees before we packed up and headed home. Don't be fooled into thinking it was a speedway free day - because no word of a lie we hadn't been set up on the beach more than 5 minutes when Kings Lynn were calling for Chris to guest the next day at Belle Vue....
It's now Cardiff SGP weekend, and we were invited by close friends Emma & Colin so I booked a hotel for the Friday night and invited my parents up to babysit. Chris was racing in the Pairs at Oxford on the Friday night for Glasgow so before he headed to Sandy Lane he dropped me at Newbury to meet up with friends who were taking me with them to Cardiff, before Chris was joining us later after the pairs. I smiled as Chris dropped me off in the van and I jumped in to my lift - a stunning red Aston Martin DBX, but most importantly time with friends so the traffic filled journey flew by as we caught up on life and laughed as we were stuck on the M4 behind 2 car loads who were swapping alcohol across the carriageway from the passenger seat. We arrived at the beautiful St Davids Hotel in the bay and headed to the bar where we indulged in a stunning 3 course meal, and chatted and laughed so much whilst enjoying a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon between the 3 of us to the delight of the staff who amusingly couldn't do enough for us once the order went in for the first one. We had the pairs streaming on my phone in the background, but to be honest we were too busy chatting to even know what was happening, it was only when Chris messaged that we knew the result. Saturday morning arrived and we all headed for breakfast and then a lovely stroll around the bay, the calm before the crazy. It was back to the hotel for check out and then gatecrashed our friends suite to get ready - well us girls got ready, Chris & Col spent the whole time sat on the sofa talking speedway bikes and boxes. It was just before noon and we took a taxi to town where we were meeting up with another group of 8 in the pub for a few drinks (except Chris who only had soft drinks), and where the crazy 3 hours began - I say crazy because Chris was mobbed - we tried to shield him a little by hiding in a corner of the pub, but there was no escape - but like the true gent he is he spoke to everyone, posed for selfies and obliged for autographs. We then made our way to the stadium where we enjoyed hospitality with our friends which to be honest was the absolute highlight. The pre-meeting buildup and entertainment was very lack lustre to be honest and the meeting was pretty much gate and go, and the atmosphere and crowd was really underwhelming from what it used to be, we were just grateful to spend time with our friends.
We had to head home after the meeting as Chris had an early morning flight from London Stansted to Germany for the World Long Track, which at one point we didn't think he was going to make it as we got stuck on the M5 due to a crash, after a long wait the road reopened and we managed to make it back and luckily he made his flight and finished P2 in the meeting in Scheeßel, Germany.
It was then Oxford v Glasgow followed with drama as I was bitten by a spider and had a nasty reaction - within a short time i was feeling very unwell and after backwards and forwards with pharmacists and numerous calls with 111 I was rushed to hospital on the Thursday morning. It was a long few hours waiting around and moved from different units of the hospital for different tests and checks, I finally seen the Dr and was allowed to go home with medication just after 2.30pm. I was finally settled back at home with the girls, and at 3.45pm Chris made his dash to Kings Lynn for his guest booking with Jon and Cruz in tow. Chris had a night to forget and another crash - definitely a day to forget for both of us but a day to remember for our biggest queen Mia-Faye who picked up her GCSE results for English Literature and Health & Social whilst i was in hospital. She waited until we were home and then she cried some happy tears as she read her results out loud - she had done really well and passed!
It was then a trip to Essex for a Wedding - makes a change for us all to get dressed up and relax with friends and enjoy the celebrations, with some sunshine mixed with showers, good food, drink and of course some time on the dance floor - especially me and the girls ( did manage to get Chris to dance - more than once) all in all a really lovely day celebrating love.
We hit the road again making the long journey from Essex to Cornwall where I was holidaying with the kids for a week (Chris joined us for a couple of days in-between racing). We were blessed with a week of nice sunny warm weather and enjoyed every minute of our break in our caravan - which the kids absolute love - they genuinely would live in it if they could. From the theme park at Camel Creek to the Goliath Falls, Mevagissey to crabbing in Padstow, searching for sea glass to swimming, body boarding to building sandcastles, to fish and chips and ice cream - memory making at it's absolute finest and the best way to bring our summer adventures to an end!
Throw in a few rider of the night awards and rider of the year at Glasgow, track walks and team talks with Cruz for Glasgow and BSN, summer fetes, food festivals, dance shows, date nights, movie nights and endless hours in the fields its certainly been a busy but rewarding few months for the Harris’s ………..
Photos - Team Harris©️unlesss stated otherwise
