A Road to Success

The gregarious Yager returns from his encounter and plops down on a folding chair where he takes a swig of water. “I hug everybody,” he says. “What’s more, I sign all my communications with ‘Hugs.’ And you know what? I get ‘hugs’ back all the time.”

Suddenly the air is shattered by the deep, guttural roar of an engine so loud it makes a Harley-Davidson with straight pipes sound like the electric clock of a Rolls-Royce. Mike and Laurie Yager’s 1968 C3 (third generation) L-88 Corvette that once competed at Le Mans has been fired up for a short drive to the display of historic racing models. All conversation stops until the mind-numbing thunder recedes into the distance. “I turned down an offer of $2 million for that car,” Yager says with obvious relish. “It’s part of the collection in my museum.”