The man with the smiling face and smiling employees started selling parts out of the back of his car, then progressed to the current complex of buildings (including his own private museum with about 30 cars) on the outskirts of Effingham, Illinois. Mid-America, itself, is an amusement park in a car sort of way.
     At the Funfest 2000, Dave McClellan, retired chief Corvette engineer, along with famous automotive artist David Kimble, set up their autograph table in the drive of the 1910 vintage service station that Yager bought and restored. Later, Yager also signed autographs there, as did Billy Boat, an Indy car driver in the CART series. Nearby was a Dana Forrester recreation of the sign that once hung at the St. Louis Corvette assembly plant. “People like to park their Corvettes