BLOG CENTRAL - LAURIE CANNISTER

UPDATED 10-14-2008

In its never-ending quest to bring the entire world of drag racing to its readers, CompetitionPlus.com has added IHRA Alcohol Funny Car standout Laurie Cannister, to bring insight behind-the-scenes of the Kalbones Grill'n sauce team.

Cannister brings a personable approach to the world of professional drag racing. She's won national events, 14 of them, and has held her own over the years in racing with the boys. A former Pro Outlaw world champion, Cannister now races and wins quite a bit in the Alcohol Funny Car class.

UPDATED - 10 -14 -2008

The five-week hiatus has been tough. With going out in the semi’s in Epping, there wasn’t much to do with the car (other than normal maintenance) when we got back. So we took our time and prepped the car for Rockingham where, we hope, we can run fast again like we did last year. My track record 5.669 still stands, and I would just LOVE to break it!

I would have much rather raced once or twice in between the last two races, but it’s been kinda nice to get some stuff done around the house. A lot of stuff has been left go due to the crazy schedule we have between July and September. So I’ve been enjoying getting some yard work done (very therapeutic!).

I’m in the process of making another flower garden around the house. Why does everything sound like a good idea, but when it’s time to make it happen, it’s a lot more than you thought???!! I’m sure it will be nice after it’s done.

Dale has also been able to get some much needed projects closer to completion. Especially, Kevin Fisher’s Top Dragster. We’re looking to have it done for him before the PRI show. It’s the first complete car Dale will have ever done; and, it’s turning out great! It has taken a lot longer than expected because we were fortunate enough to get to race this year for Kalbones!

Speaking of Kalbones, I can’t come close to thanking Kevin and Wendy Sims enough for giving Dale and I this opportunity. I even think they are a little shocked at the fantastic season we’ve had. We all knew we had it in us, but the class is such a tough, competitive class, that it could have easily gone a different direction.

We have also been able to spend some much needed time with “our son” Samson. Samson turned 2 yrs. old on September 19—isn’t he gorgeous?!

We have felt so bad that we’ve had to leave him (albeit in a “pet resort”) for all the races. So we are making up for lost time with him as well. Samson is a Norwegian Elkhound—what a wonderful breed of dog!

Well, we’re just about ready to put the car in the trailer so I’d better go be of some assistance. If anyone reading this is coming to the Rockingham race, please stop by and say “Hi!” I’d love to see you!

Take care and hope to see you at “The Rock!”

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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09-06-2008

Well, I’m sorry for my disappearance for a while from my blog. I have been soooo crazy busy with helping Dale turn the car around after Martin and Tulsa that I never got a chance to write.

We had quite a lot of work to do after our Martin win. We went through two engines (both repairable—no major damage but just a lot of maintenance on both). After Tulsa, we had to totally freshen #1 engine and put a new ring and pinion in the rear end (that’s tire shake for ya!). Plus, with all the clutch and floater grinding I have to do between every race, it doesn’t leave me much time for much else!

After coming off the runner-up finish to Dale Brand in Tulsa, we only had 6 days to get the car ready to leave for Epping. Boy! It’s been quite a summer! The car left last night (Monday) and we leave Thursday afternoon. So, we’ll try to recoup these next couple of days before we’re hard at it for the race weekend.

I have to say Dale Brand and his family and crew are some of our best friends in drag racing. Although we have made a lot of friends in racing, it’s tough to get better than them. They are true competitors and true friends. We would like to think we are very much like them.

I know there is quite a soft spot for Dale Brand in my Dad’s heart. Dad walks up to Dale on occasion and says, “If we don’t win, we want you to win.” That’s just my Dad’s way of letting Dale know how special he is to us. I personally love to race him. There’s something about the air around us when we’re paired up. It’s not like that with anyone else. For some reason, it’s just a different mindset. I just can’t describe it.

So we’re off to Epping to hopefully clinch the championship. I haven’t said much about doing this lately, but that’s what we need to accomplish this weekend. Hopefully, God will be riding with me and giving Dale all the confidence and knowledge he needs to tune this 3,000 hp “animal” successfully this weekend. As long as we stay focused, we should be fine.

I shouldn’t have a hard time blogging after Epping—we have 5 weeks until Rockingham!!! It’s going to seem like an eternity!!!

Take care and be safe!

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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08-06-2008

Winning is cool ...

afc winner cannister.JPG Wow! What a weekend at Martin, Michigan!!! We won our fifth national event. That bettered our record of four in one season!

The weekend didn’t start out as we would have liked it to, so there was no way we were thinking we could come out of it with a win! It is just proof that “when it’s your day, it’s your day!”

Friday started out with a so-so pass. We figured out we were having clutch issues. So Saturday, things really didn’t improve that much, even though we improved in E.T. By the end of Saturday night, we were qualified #5 and it was time to do the usual Saturday night maintenance on the car for race day.

We were all but finished when Steve (my bottom-end guy) found that #2 main cap was cracked! There’s not much you can do with that except change motors. So that’s what we did. After we put engine #2 in the frame rails, we started her up. Immediately, smoke started pouring out of #2 header! Sometimes when that happens, it is just piston rings that need to seat against the cylinder walls, and when they do, it clears up. But, this wasn’t clearing up.

At this point, it was about 11pm when it was decided to check out the situation and try to remedy it. We ended up tearing that motor apart, checking everything out, and reassembling it. With it being after midnight when we finished, we had to wait until morning to fire it.

We fired her up when we got up Sunday morning and still no change. Smoke! Smoke! And more smoke!!! Dale (my husband and tuner) decided to change cylinder heads on that side to see if that would fix it. Well, we decided to wait to go up for first round to fire it and thought we would just run it and see what happens.

We were facing our good friend, Dale Brand, in round one. He’s a tough competitor with an extremely fast car! We knew we would have our hands full and Dale decided to make a few tune-up changes to hopefully get past first round. Lo and behold! We ran our fastest pass of the weekend first round—and WON!!! It was amazing! And, all with the car “smokin’ like a freight train!”

At that point, we decided we would just perform our normal between pass maintenance and try to forget about all the smoke. We were then paired up with Terry Munroe, who is another incredible competitor. Actually, there is no one in Alcohol Funny Car that is NOT a contender on any given day.

We were very fortunate to get past the round with Terry, although he made it a VERY CLOSE race! We made it to another final!!! And, again, it was with Paul Noakes! Paul is one of THE BEST leavers in the AFC class. You can’t ever take him or his crew lightly--EVER! So we didn’t, of course, and went up there with my smokin’ machine with the thought that we were so happy to even have made it that far!

Unfortunately, we couldn’t race for the win light, as Paul red-lighted it away. I guess as the saying goes, “you take ‘em any way you can get ‘em,” but I honestly would have rather raced for the win!

So all-in-all, the weekend turned out great for me and my team, albeit not with out a TON of work at the track, and now back at home to get ready for the next event.

Besides the win, we did have a great time with all our friends that showed up for this event. Scott Towsley, Amelio and Paula Rodriguez, Don, Molly, and Carson Wellman, and, of course, my buddies, Kathy & Kevin Fisher! It’s so much fun to race and do well with your friends around. I am so glad they were all there!

I have to get moving and get the clutch grinder going, so have a great week and talk to you all soon!

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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Be patient, I'm a blogger rookie ...

Hi everyone! I’m Laurie Cannister, driver of the Kalbones Grill’n Sauce IHRA Alcohol Funny Car. I’ve never blogged before, so hopefully you’ll all be patient with me. I’ll get better, I promise!

We’re back home from the Grand Bend national event, unloaded, and the car almost totally disassembled. Typical for how things go with us after a race. Work has begun to get ready for Martin in two weeks.

Even though we went out in the semis in Grand Bend, we really learned what this car wanted with the new blower. With only having a week to turn the car around to get to the next event, we most likely will return to our original tune-up.

We’ve taken the attitude of “you can’t win them all, but we certainly try” so we don’t get too down on ourselves. We still had a decent weekend and are so happy for Paul Noakes and his team on their victory. Every team’s desire is an iron man, and for Paul, it’s been a while since he has had one. Fortunately, I’ve been very blessed to have won 14 Iron Men in my professional career! A lot of people don’t ever accomplish one in their careers.

Today I’m spending with myself and my dog, Samson, and tonight with my husband, Dale. It’s my birthday today (July 23) and he’s taking me out to dinner! I can’t wait! I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t like to be taken out to dinner!!!

Tomorrow will be back to normal and I’ll be down the shop grinding clutch discs and floaters, cleaning the chassis, and finish disassembling the car. I really enjoy working on the car—it also helps me to understand it and be a better driver by knowing how it all works. Dale has taught me a lot so that I can do some of the work to enable him to work a full-time job.

I not only work on the car, but my other jobs are to maintain the trailer and contents of it; take care of the uniforms, my firesuit, and my parachutes; and make all the crew travel arrangements for each event.

This has been a dream come true for me to be able to be a professional race car driver and I still can’t thank Kevin and Wendy Sims enough for giving me this opportunity. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do since that first day in 1995 that I took my Cutlass Supreme down the quarter mile at Quaker City! I knew I was hooked, but hey, I could be hooked on a lot worse things!!! The other best part of this deal is that my husband, Dale, gets to show off his tuning abilities, too! It doesn’t get any better than this to be able to share your dream with your husband!!

Well, I’ll sign off for now and catch up with everyone after the next event. Have a great week!