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THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011
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Excitement on stage and track The Mission Folk Music Festival, and the largest funny car event in Mission Raceway’s history happen this weekend
Mari Boine is one of the performer’s at this year’s Mission Folk Music Festival gala concert, happening July 21 at the Clarke Theatre. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Tim Nemeth’s nitro Mustang has been putting down consistent five-second passes and looks to continue his winning ways this weekend. BILL JEFFEREY, SPEEDZONE MAGAZINE
Folk festival will draw National Open attracts thousands to the park 32 funny cars to MRP BY ADRIAN MACNAIR Mission Record
The 24th Annual Mission Folk Music Festival begins today, rain or shine, and organizers have been putting in the hours to ensure everything is just right in Fraser River Heritage Park. “We’ve been working with fewer resources and less time, so everything’s been a little bit compacted,” said long-time organizer Francis Xavier.
The festival had less money this year due mainly to provincial funding cuts to the arts, and the time crunch was because many of the students who usually help with the festival were busy working on the federal election, Xavier explained. But that hasn’t slowed the preparations, as stages, tents and fences have been erected in anticipation of the 5,000 to 7,000 visitors expected to come for the music between today and Sunday evening.
Sales have been on par with previous years, but Xavier says the weekend is when most people buy tickets. The weather also plays a factor he added, but extremely hot temperatures have historically had a dampening effect on ticket sales compared to cool weather. Tonight is the gala concert at the Clarke Theatre beginning at 7:30 p.m. with See LIVE Page 10
BY DEAN MURDOCH Record contributor
Mission Raceway Park is attracting a record-breaking 32 funny cars to the track this weekend for the Canadian National Open. Three different funny car classes will compete for close to $50,000 in prize money. The Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Cars, running on a 6.90 hard index, and the NW BB/Funny Car group running on a 6.80 soft index, and the
“All Out” Nitro Funny Cars. The first two classes run blown alcohol combinations and include drivers like Kim Parker, Ron Huegli, northwest series champion Randy Parker, Rocky Mountain champion Joey Steckler, Cal Tebb in his GTO, and Eddy Plaizier in the unique ‘37 Chevy built in-house by Ace Manufacturing. The nitro class has world record holder Tim Boychuk in the Hodgson/Boychuk Trans Am, Mike Savage in the Can-
dies and Hughes Cuda, Mark Hentges in Bucky Austin’s NW Hitter Arrow, Mark “Mr. Explosive” Sanders, two Steve Plueger Funny Cars (with Edmonton drivers Todd Lesenko and Mike Grekul behind the wheels), and a half dozen others from the West Coast. One other driver in the Nitro class this weekend is local favorite Tim Nemeth. See BECOME Page 19
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