Laurie Cannister could only smile as she walked into the pressroom at Maryland International Raceway. Her day had finally arrived. She was prepared for the moment and it didn’t matter if she only had two weeks to prepare for it.

Kevin and Wendy Sims had purchased her former alcohol Funny Car and needed a driver. Cannister was available. After all, she’d been waiting on a call since parking her operation in 2002.

Sunday’s victory over Mark Thomas validated Cannister’s patience.

“It was a storybook weekend, absolutely storybook,” Cannister said.  “Kevin and Wendy called and said we’d like to get back out there would you like to drive the car.  I’m like yeah, twist my, arm it’s the phone call I’ve been waiting for since 2002.”

During the weekend, the Sims announced a full tour in 2008 and ensured Cannister a driving job. That leads one to ask, “How fortunate can a girl get in a weekend?”

Maybe it was the magic of racing at MIR. Her last and only other IHRA AFC victory came in 2002 at this event when she defeated Jimmy Rector, who has since retired from driving and now works as a Pro Modified tuner.

Cannister also had two victories at MIR while running in the Pro Outlaw division, a class the IHRA discontinued after the 2000, the year she won the class championship. She is credited as being the winningest driver in that class with eight victories in ten final rounds during the course of three seasons.

Cannister’s return to the limelight didn’t require re-acclimation. It was as if she never left.

“For how consistent we were, the fastest I’d ever been before last weekend was a 5.77 back in 2002,” said Cannister. “When I went out there on Saturday and ran a 5.86 and then a 5.74 it was like everything was a 5.70 after that point. 

“When we weren’t hurting anything and the car was running flawless, I said, if luck’s on our side, we may be able to pull this off.  I never take anybody lightly and don’t look any further than the next round. When it’s meant to be your day it’s your day.  Luckily it was our day.”

Cannister said pulling into the water box for the first round created more anxiety than the final round.

“The first round is way worse than the final,” Cannister said. “You know racing Mark Thomas is always fun and I never have a whole lot of tension racing him.  We’re really good friends, good racers together and we always were before.  Obviously you’re always a little bit nervous but it wasn’t as bad as the first round.  The first round is really tough.”

Cannister said the victory is an encouraging experience for her new team owners.

“The whole thought was to come out to this race and go to Rockingham, see how we do and try to get a team together,” Cannister said. “It’s gelling already. So they’re all, ‘Let’s do it again at Rockingham’ and I’m like, ‘Ok, let’s enjoy this first, please.”