Suddenly the term “getting beat by a girl” isn’t such an embarrassing proposition, at least that’s the stance taken by the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car fraternity of drivers. They’ve really got no other choice.

Laurie Cannister has led every round of qualifying thus far in 2008 and has won every round. In fact, the driver of the Kalbones Grill’n Sauce Funny Car has won three of the last four events she’s entered.

“That’s pretty much unheard of,” Cannister said of the team’s accomplishments. “I don’t think anyone has done that well since Jimmy Rector was racing. He dominated that last year I was in it. I just hope we can stay up there. Once you get up there, it’s tough to stay there. I know I have the crew and I know I have the backing with Kalbones.”

Suddenly the term “getting beat by a girl” isn’t such an embarrassing proposition, at least that’s the stance taken by the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car fraternity of drivers. They’ve really got no other choice.

Laurie Cannister has led every round of qualifying thus far in 2008 and has won every round. In fact, the driver of the Kalbones Grill’n Sauce Funny Car has won three of the last four events she’s entered.

“That’s pretty much unheard of,” Cannister said of the team’s accomplishments. “I don’t think anyone has done that well since Jimmy Rector was racing. He dominated that last year I was in it. I just hope we can stay up there. Once you get up there, it’s tough to stay there. I know I have the crew and I know I have the backing with Kalbones.”

“It’s been quite a ride,” Cannister added.

Cannister is racing with a familiar ride seeing the car she’s driving is the same one she piloted in 2002 when she ran an abbreviated schedule. What is not the same are the components under the GM-bodied entry.

“We have a totally different supercharger than we used to run,” Cannister said. “The heads are still Ken Veney heads, but they are the 2-600 heads. The others were 2-500 Ken Veney heads. It all obviously works different and obviously faster too.”

In 2002, Cannister ran as quick as a 5.77. She’s since lowered the standard to a 5.66.

Cannister found out on Sunday the extra horsepower can come in handy, especially when she’s tardy on the starting line like she was against first round opponent Neal Parker. She’s familiar with Park having raced him many times in the now defunct Pro Outlaw division.

Cannister was able to run down Parker’s .12 starting line advantage and beat him by almost three feet at the stripe.

“I beat myself up today after that round,” Cannister said. “When Neal Parker left on me and all I saw was red car, I knew I was in serious trouble. Luckily the crew gave me a car that was able to drive around him.

“I tried to get out of my head and psyche myself up a little more,” Cannister said. “I tried to get up for the tree and concentrate harder. I just did that every time, so the last pass was my best one.”

Cannister’s winning reaction time was a .049 in the final round.

COMRADERIE – Cannister may be beating up on the boys badly this season, but when she’s down, they don’t think twice about helping. Dale Brand came to Cannister’s rescue in Rockingham when the team had a problem with the front tires on the car.

“They lent me the front wheels and tires because I had chunks out of my tires,” Cannister said. “We needed the help and they came to our rescue and brought their crew down to help us. We also had a hurt cylinder at that time – the number one – and it was hurt pretty bad. We were concerned about it. I put the car into third gear in the final and it was still going pretty fast. Right as it went through the lights, it quit and I thought it was going to throw me into the windshield. I knew something was hurt, but when I saw the win-light I said, ‘I don’t care, this is perfect.”