Laurie Cannister is doing her best to adapt to all the accolades being thrown her way in 2008. The Johnstown, Ohio-based Alcohol Funny Car racer has won four of the last six races on the IHRA tour, two of those from the No. 1 qualifying success.

Such success might leave a driver feeling invincible. Not the overly cautious Cannister.

Case in point, when revered IHRA Alcohol Funny Car icon Carol “Bunny” Burkett bestowed her prediction that Cannister would be the next female to win a championship, Cannister smiled and said thanks.

“One race at a time,” Cannister added.


She’s not keen on predictions; IHRA superstar just enjoying living in the present

Laurie Cannister is doing her best to adapt to all the accolades being thrown her way in 2008. The Johnstown, Ohio-based Alcohol Funny Car racer has won four of the last six races on the IHRA tour, two of those from the No. 1 qualifying success.

Such success might leave a driver feeling invincible. Not the overly cautious Cannister.

Case in point, when revered IHRA Alcohol Funny Car icon Carol “Bunny” Burkett bestowed her prediction that Cannister would be the next female to win a championship, Cannister smiled and said thanks.

“One race at a time,” Cannister added.

Burkett is the only female driver to win an IHRA Alcohol Funny Car championship when she claimed the inaugural class world championship in 1986. This marked the first time the Alcohol Funny Car had been lauded as a professional category.

“She’s turned into quite a cheerleader for me and that’s something special,” Cannister said. “She said she’s passing her torch and I told her not to because she’ll jinx me. She’s always been there for me and she’s just a special woman.”

Cannister won her fifth national event in the Alcohol Funny Car division on Sunday when she mastered the IHRA Torco Race Fuels President’s Cup Nationals crown in Budd Creek, Md. This victory marked her second Maryland International Raceway victory in a row.

Cannister is a former world champion having won the 2000 IHRA Pro Outlaw crown.

Her story is one for the movie screen, having sat out of racing for five years and returning at that 2007 event and driving her way to the winner’s circle. She followed up the victory with a No. 1 qualifying effort the next event.

In fact, Cannister has reached the finals in every event thus far in 2008. Save for a computer problem in Milan, she could easily be undefeated this season.

The team tuned the car in that event without the benefit of a computer and she still kept winning rounds. Husband and tuner Dale Cannister along with crew chief Mike Couch kept making the right decisions on the car.

“It seems like we are able to adapt to whatever is thrown our way,” Cannister said. “We tuned the car without a computer and made it to the final. We didn’t win and it was still incredible that we were in the final.

The Maryland victory validated their previous success and the resourcefulness at the previous event.

“It’s great that we were able to come back and prove that win last year was no fluke,” Cannister said. “I can’t say enough about Dale and Mike; they took care of the car all weekend long. We just did what we know how to do with the car and it all turned out our way.”