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May 22 2013 www.newwestnewsleader.com
molly Stuart used to go to the park in the middle of the night to ride the swings to get rid of her anxiety. Now she is part of Speak up, an initiative to educate young people about mental illness. see page a3
Hyack parade, festival set for Saturday Uptown Live! to feature several eclectic acts
photo contributed
Electric karts, like this one nicknamed Roxy, are expected to hit the streets of Downtown New Westminster in June 2014 as part of the fledgling G-Zero racing series.
Electric kart race planned Downtown Organizer hopes to hold first event in June 2014 Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
Organized street racing without the roar of the engines and the smell of the fumes. That’s the vision Greg Webster has for Downtown New Westminster next year. The man behind the G-Zero Championship Racing Series was surprised when his plan to hold an electric kart race in Downtown New Westminster was revealed by Mayor Wayne Wright last Wednesday (May
15) at a chamber of commerce luncheon. Webster has been talking to city hall for quite a while, but there are still stakeholders to talk to and issues to be resolved, he said Friday. “I wasn’t expecting the mayor talking about it in any fashion until we were further down the road,” said Webster. “I’m glad he did because it puts the pressure on us to make it happen.” The tentative plan, said Webster, is to hold the New Westminster race in June 2014. The Downtown topography as a circuit site excites
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audiences to urban settings. He thought it would be cool for Vancouver to have one too so a couple of years ago he began looking at starting a series. He approached the City of Vancouver, which formerly had a big Indy Car race at False Creek every September, but they rejected the idea because of the noise. So Webster went back to the drawing board and through social media stumbled on a race in Indiana involving university students racing electric karts they had built. Please see orGanizers, a3
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Webster, as does SkyTrain being able to transport a large audience. Drivers would race up Columbia Street to Sixth Street where they would turn left up the hill and then onto Clarkson Street before coming back down the hill on Begbie Street onto Columbia where there would be a hairpin turn at Eighth Street to start all over again. “It will make for spectacular racing. It’s a great location.” The Vancouver entrepreneur and consultant had watched combustion engine events that attracted 500 competitors and brought large
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The focus for the second weekend of the Hyack Festival shifts to Uptown on Saturday. It begins near Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue at 11 a.m. with the 42nd annual Hyack International Parade which will proceed down Sixth Street before concluding in Queen’s Park. The Hyack Festival Association has named Telus chair Brian Canfield as its honorary parade marshal. Once the parade is done the streets will be cleared and three performance stages featuring an eclectic mix of indie bands set up for the UptownLive! street festival which was started last year. The acts include New Westminster’s Warren Dean Flandez, the Boom Booms, Good for Grapes, Bend Sinister, the Belle Games, the Shilohs and Buckman Coe. The music should start bopping in the streets at about 1 p.m. There will also be a spectacular BMX bike demonstration, food trucks and a City of New Westminster family fun zone.