A Road to Success

Every year in late August more than 5,000 of these sleek muscle cars converge on the Carlisle, Pa., fairgrounds to be bought, sold, swapped and ogled by 60,000 enthusiasts, while more than 1,500 vendors from all over the country set up shop to peddle their Vette-related wares.

Smack in the middle of this happy mayhem, in the large white Mid America Motorworks tent, presides a former tool and die maker named Mike Yager. During the show, he gives away 2,500 T-shirts and hats to attendees and exchanges good humored barbs and rapid-fire repartee with any and all who happen by. And he seems to know just about everybody who happens by.