Mike Yager’s “My First Corvette Moment” Story

by Scott · October 7, 2025

From Mike’s passion for Corvettes, he built a Corvette empire

This story was first published in the October 2023 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.

If you have a new or previously owned Corvette, odds are you have a Mid America Motorworks catalog on your Corvette bookshelf. Younger, newer Corvette owners likely don’t know that in the early days of the Corvette hobby, there were no Corvette catalog businesses. Many of today’s long-standing Corvette catalog businesses grew out of swap meets that started in the 1970s.

Before catalogs, if you needed replacement parts, you had to go to your local Chevrolet Parts Department for new Chevrolet-manufactured parts or swap meets to find acceptable used parts. Performance parts and accessories were offered by small Mom & Pop speed shops or independent companies.

Mail order catalogs had been around since 1861, when the Pryce-Jones Company in Newtown, Wales, started selling Welsh flannel through the mail. In 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward popularized mail order catalogs in America by beginning a paper General Store selling essential goods. Hammacher Schlemmer got into the mail-order game in 1881, followed by the popular granddaddy of mail-order catalogs, Sears, and later Sears and Robbuck.

By the early ’70s, Chevrolet was into the third generation of Corvettes, and the Corvette hobby and lifestyle were gaining traction. Racing Corvettes had become a force to be reckoned with in road racing and drag racing. Corvettes were making big splashes at car shows, and many Chevrolet dealerships were sponsoring Corvette-only shows in their dealership showrooms.

The Corvette “lifestyle” was coming together.

Mike Yager had a head for business even as a young man. Mike saw an opening for Corvette product, besides parts and accessories. In 1974, with a $500 loan, Mike started attending shows offering Corvette t-shirts, jackets, glassware, patches, and jewelry. In the beginning, Mike worked his business out of his apartment, the trunk of a friend’s car, and another friend’s attic.

If you are not familiar with Mid America Motorworks, you might be surprised to know that Mike also has a passion for air-cooled Volkswagens. When Mike was growing up, VWs seemed to be everywhere. The cars were well-built, affordable, easy to work on, and fun to drive. For decades, it seemed the Beetles were everywhere; today, they are rarely seen on the road. Mike saw an opportunity within the “fun” aspect of the popular air-cooled Bugs and started offering Beetle accessory and performance parts to Bug owners, and continues to do so today.

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Eventually, Mike expanded into replacement parts, his operation expanded to a 1,200 square foot space, then a 7,200 square foot building. Decades later, in 2002, Mike launched his “Performance Choice” manufacturing operation with a 36,000 square foot facility making factory-spec molded carpet sets, door panels, convertible tops, seating upholstery, headliners, shifter consoles, and interior trim. Mid America Motorworks now offers over 80,000 parts and accessories and has a 140-acre campus in Effingham, Illinois.

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But let’s back up a little to 1993 when Mike launched his Corvette Funfest events. There’s no argument that Corvettes are all about fun. They’re fun to drive, fun to look at, and it’s fun hanging out with fellow Corvette owners. Occasionally, they can be a pain in the neck to own, but the fun factor makes up for the occasional trying times. Mike’s enthusiasm for all things Corvette has earned him the nickname “Chief Cheerleader”. Mike’s signature look is his flat top straw hat with a red Corvette sash.

Mike’s enthusiasm and dedication to the Corvette community paid off for him in 2018 when he was inducted into the National Corvette Museum’s Hall of Fame in the Enthusiast Category.

Mike’s First Corvette Moment

So, how did this all get started? In hindsight, I guess it was inevitable that young Mike Yager would become involved in something to do with cars, given that he has six older brothers who were into cars. One brother was into restoring old cars, and another was into building hot rods. You could say that Mike was a “car guy” before he was a “Corvette guy”. Like many young car guys, Mike regularly watched the popular TV series that ran from 1960 to 1964, “Route 66”.

One day in 1962, when Mike was just 12 years old, he was riding with one of his brothers when a silver 1960 Corvette rumbled by on the other side of the road. His brother said, “Hey, that’s a Corvette!” Mike snapped to attention and burned the image of the car into his visual memory. Mike recalls, “I can still see that silver Corvette in my mind’s eye. It was just the coolest-looking thing I’d ever seen. From that moment forward, everything was about Corvettes for me.”

“After we got home, my brother took me to our local Five & Dime store, where I bought a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray Coupe AMT model kit. Since my older brothers were all into cars, one of my brothers let me have his stack of car magazines. I read every one of them, cover-to-cover, over and over. I started a file folder of Corvette articles and photos that I cut out of magazines. One magazine had a cover shot of a 1958 Corvette that I pasted to the front of that file folder. I was just totally into Corvettes.”

Remember your first “Corvette ride”? Sure you do! For Mike, his first “ride” in a Corvette was also the first time he got to “drive” a Corvette. Mike explains, “One of my brothers got a 1960 Corvette and let me drive it when I was twelve years old! We lived in a very rural area, and it was a very different world back then.”

“I got my first ride in a new 1963 Split Window Coupe one night coming home from the drags. That was really something. The view looking forward over the hood of the Sting Ray was very different from my brother’s ’60 Corvette. Looking forward in the ’60 Corvette, the view was basically flat. But the Sting Ray had those beautiful fender humps and center hood bulge. I still get excited looking over the hood of Sting Rays. That’s a view I never get tired of seeing.”

Mike’s First Corvette

For those of us who were youngsters when we got the Corvette infection, everything comes full circle with our “first” Corvette. Mike shares his “first” Corvette. “I was twenty years old, and it seemed like I’d been wanting a Corvette forever. I always loved convertible Corvettes, so my first Corvette was a Marina Blue ’67 327/300, 4-speed Convertible. I absolutely loved that car! I was only 20 and my daily driver was a beautiful Sting Ray. It’s the car I had when I started my business.”

“After seven years of ownership (seven years when you are in your 20s seems like a long time), I sold the car to a gal in Iowa. I had the VIN number, so many years later, I knew that she still owned the car. I contacted her to see if she might be interested in selling the car back to me. When I described the car to her, she was a little spooked and said, “Have you been in my garage?” We ended our conversation with her assuring me that if she ever decided to sell, I’d be the first person she’d call.”

“Every so often, I’d give her a friendly call about the Corvette until one time in the early 2000s she said, “Oh! I’m sorry, but I completely forgot about you and sold the car, but I still have the hardtop, so I bought it. I kept looking for the car but never found it. About three years ago, I sold the top to a guy with a Nassau Blue ’66 Convertible. He was thrilled because it looked like it was the original hardtop for his car.”

Mike’s Favorite Corvette

Over the years, Mike has owned many Corvettes. His “MY Garage” (“MY” – standing for “Mike Yager”) is renowned in the Corvette community. It is a Corvette “palace” that is open to the public, free of charge. I asked Mike what his all-time favorite Corvette is, and his answer was surprising, considering how many Corvettes he has owned.

“My favorite is my 1996 Last C4 that I special-ordered and got not just to see the car move along the assembly line, but got to tighten lots of bolts. Typically, when the “last” of a number milestone (such as the 1993 1,000,000^th Corvette) is being built, the workers like to sign their names on the various parts that they put on the car. My Last C4 has over 3,000 signatures. That experience holds lots of memories for me. Of course, today the “first” and “last” of all generations of Corvettes is on most Corvette collectors’ wish lists. For a while, I owned the “Last C5 Z06.”

Many “thanks” to Mike for sharing some time from his very busy Corvette life and his unique “My First Corvette Moment” story. We will be bringing you more “First Corvette Moments” stories from prominent people in the world of Corvettes. – Scott