Still racers, after all these years. That’s what I was thinking as one veteran driver after another mounted the stage and regaled us with stories of his Trans-Am days.

The Trans-Am: It started way back in the mid-‘60s, which means these guys must be, gosh, mumble-mumble years old now. And some of them are beginning to look it. But they don’t act it. In their minds—and in their eyes—they’re still the wild and win-crazed youngsters they were way back when.

During a video, we watched a tight cluster of cars racing toward us. In the middle, a Mustang breaks loose and spears right at us. Admirably, our camera operator stays with it, whirling around to show us the fishtailing pony car slithering onto the verge, spraying up dust and debris.

The Mustang driver is staying with it, too. He’s on the grass, but he’s still on the gas, and he’s passing people. When he finally fights his way back to the road, he’s gained positions.

Later, Rufus Parnell Jones sprang up before us and, of course, the first question he got was inevitable. Maybe it wasn’t the first time he’s been asked about that piece of film, for he was ready with a quip.

“That’s how I got into off-road racing; I couldn’t stay on any more.”

When the laughter died down Parnelli answered more directly, and very simply: “You do what you have to do to get ahead.”

For the whole story, see the February issue of Vintage Racecar.