You Have to Be At Least 50 to Enter This Race : Competition: Vintage cars take off from Huntington Beach pier on a 4,250-mile course that will end in Virginia.

As thousands cheered them on, 92 drivers and their navigators in the Interstate Batteries Great American Race roared off from the Huntington Beach pier on Sunday, turned right onto Pacific Coast Highway and headed for Norfolk, Va.

The 4,250-mile race, mixing good-natured competition with a bit of Americana, is auto racing’s tribute to the first generation of cars ever produced, some of which are more than 80 years old. To officially qualify for the race, cars must be at least 50 years old. The starting line featured Buicks, Fords, Cadillacs, Packards, a Marmon, a taxicab with a siren and a Willys Overland convertible.

Spectator David Dennis, 29, of Los Angeles said the race is a perfect opportunity to see vintage cars and talk with the drivers waiting for staggered starts.

“These guys aren’t in it for the money, you can tell,” Dennis said, despite the $250,000 in prize money that is offered. “They want everybody to get involved and they’re really enjoying themselves.”

The race will cross 16 states on a journey that will take 14 days. Instead of focusing on speed, teams compete against the clock as they try to follow precise, computer-generated road instructions, Gene Wooldridge, Interstate’s vice president of marketing, said.

“Last year’s winner was only 1 1/2 minutes off, and that’s over 14 days of driving,” he said. “We’ve got the instructions down to the hundredths of a second.”

Contestants follow hundreds of driving instructions daily that require them to reach certain secret checkpoints at preordained times, using only a stopwatch, the car’s speedometer, pencils and paper. The car’s odometer is sealed or removed.

Penalty points are assessed for each second they are early or late. At the day’s end, the driver with the time closest to the optimum time wins, Wooldridge said.

Wooldridge said that Sunday’s crowd, many of whom were also there to watch the start of a professional surfing competition, “was the largest crowd we’ve ever had.”

Huntington Beach Marine Safety officers said the event attracted about 15,000 to 20,000 people, estimating that another 70,000 people visited the city beach.

Many of the drivers and navigators were garbed in vintage racing attire, including soft leather helmets with goggles, oversized gloves that run the length of a driver’s forearm, and long scarves in team colors.

Unlike other car races, where spectators pay to get in or are barred from the pit areas, fans were invited to walk along the pier, take photographs and chat with the team members.

At one point, Dennis hoisted his nephew, Skylar Brown, 4, of Hemet, onto the lap of driver Ernie Cheek, who let the young boy turn the steering wheel and toot the horn on the 1929 Model A Ford.

Minutes later, Cheek, an insurance agent in Sparta, Tenn., and his navigator-son, John, 29, a banker, nosed the hood of their old Ford up to the start line on the pier. The starter and the crowd began counting down the seconds: “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Hey, you’re out of here!”

And, with a big a-ooooo-gah from his horn, Cheek put the Ford in first, let out the clutch, pressed the accelerator and was off.

Driver Dean Farnworth, 66, of Fontana and his navigator, Tony Garcia, 21, of Whittier are Interstate salespeople who won a company contest to drive the first leg of the race from Huntington Beach to Las Vegas.

“We’re going to have a ball,” Farnworth said.

The first stop, according to instructions they received only 30 minutes before race time, was for lunch in Barstow.

“Yeah, we heard Barstow’s going to be like over 100 degrees today,” Garcia said, frowning.

Farnworth said he and Garcia were given videotapes of previous Great American Races to study. In addition, the owner of the 1929 Model A speedster they were driving, Wayne Stanfield of Costa Mesa, provided last-minute instructions.

“What did we learn? Oh, hints like how to make up time and drive faster,” Farnworth said.

Drive faster? With an old three-speed car?

“Yup, you do this,” Farnworth said, as he put the gearshift into neutral and winked. “We’re gonna do some coasting downhill.”