In drag racing, they're called weekend warriors. They work at jobs all week, work on their motoring passions all night, and, weather permitting, work at beating the quarter-mile odds every racing weekend.

For Bob Haffner of Mission, the odds of topping the Top Alcohol Dragster class at the National Hot Rod Association Division Six points meet this weekend at Mission Raceway Park are big.

Bigger than the big boys in the big rigs who will motor north to contest the second stop on the six-event calendar to help determine division champions. The loud and proud Americans in the elite classes of Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car often carry wallets as big as their egos.

That's where Haffner, in his fourth year in the alcohol class, believes Canadian entries have an advantage in the three-day event which opens with Friday qualifying.

"The Americans are way too serious about his," said the 38-year-old Haffner, who made the monster jump from street-class racing into the neck-snapping dragster class. "We go out there to enjoy ourselves. They (Americans) are doing it seriously, even as a hobby.

"We have the same parts. It's just that they have five times as many spares and the dollars to replace it all. We can run as quick, we just can't do it as often."

Haffner has turned an impressive 5.94-second elapsed time at 236 miles per hour at the Mission track. While that's nowhere near the track record of 5.69 at 245.16 m.p.h. held by defending event champion Bobby Taylor of Laguna Hills, California, it will put the Abbotsford Glass company owner in the hunt for bragging rights in a stout field that has 14 prerace entries.

"We don't really set any goals," added Haffner, who became the first Canadian to crack the five-second barrier on a Canadian track. "We do it for pleasure, for personal achievement."

That pleasure comes with a steep price tag. Even Haffner, who hopes to contest a handful of events this season, had to part with about $80,000 for his current operation, which includes a new Bob Meyer-built dragster from California. And even for a weekend warrior, it's quite the accomplishment.

"I grew up around drag racing and worked at the old Mission track as a kid selling tickets and I had a night job at a restaurant," Haffner said. "I had a little street car, but I didn't have much of a chance to race because I was working. Then came the house and the business."

Now Haffner hopes to give the competition the business. That competition will include Tiffani Hyland of Springfield, Oregon, who won the season-opening division meet at Boise, Idaho.

The Top Alcohol Funny Car class boasts 18 pre-event entries including defending event champion Bucky Austin of Kent, Washington and Wayne Stoeckel who captured the Boise title. Also rumoured to contest Funny Car is Bucky's nephew, four-time world champion Pat Austin of Tacoma, Washington.

"It will be tougher to qualify (for eight spots in eliminations) and harder to win three rounds," said the elder Austin. "It will be a very interesting season and, I might add, very competitive."

Roger Bateman of Calgary holds both ends of the Mission records at 5.92 - 238 m.p.h.

The five-year-old facility won top division track honours again in 1995. More than 400 competitors will contest eight categories and vie for more than $133,000 in prizemoney. Mission track manager Wally Duperon said, "We're 24 feet above sea level. We're noted for our air and how flat our track is."

Now if someone can talk to the weatherman.