Countywide : Teaming Up for a Trek Overland

Jim and Judy Beard didn’t know a thing about vintage cars, let alone how to fix one.

But two years ago, after watching the Interstate Batteries Great American Race of antique cars on television, Jim Beard fell in love with classic cars racing across the country and planned to enter the race the following year.

Instead of buying one classic car, they bought two.

The Laguna Beach couple now own a 1932 Willys-Overland roadster and a 1931 La Salle roadster. They will be among 85 teams, including nine from Orange County, in the 12th annual Great American Race that begins at noon Sunday at the Huntington Beach Pier.

Drivers and their navigators, competing for up to $250,000 in cash and prizes, will trek 4,300 miles, stopping at 45 cities in 14 states before rolling past the finish line in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on July 2.

Last year, the Beards entered the race for the first time and drove “Slick Willy,” a black-and-white convertible. Because the car made it across the country without a problem, they will take it again this year, said Judy Beard, 57, who will navigate. They did not win any awards but they finished.

“We changed the oil in Indianapolis and that was it,” said Jim Beard, 63, a land developer and retired Navy pilot.

Beard said he entered the race for the experience of seeing the United States on back roads and meeting folks who live in small towns.

“The prize money--we’ll never win it. We’re in it for the fun,” Beard said.

The race will cost them $12,000 to $15,000, which includes the $6,500 entry fee, he said.

Judy Beard agreed that the people they meet along the way make the event worthwhile.

“Last year, the people in all the little towns would come out and greet us. The streets were lined with trucks and families and they would wave American flags. . . . It’s hard to describe. You get such a high.”

Other race participants are in the race to win.

Newt Withers, 52, of Anaheim, a Goodyear tire dealer, has tried to win every race since it started 12 years ago.

He has not won the rally’s top prize, but he did finish third in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

This year, he will drive his red, brass-trimmed 1912 Oldsmobile Autocrat, originally priced at $3,875, Withers said. Today, only four cars of its kind are left in the world and its value is $375,000, he said.

Withers’ navigator is Wayne Stanfield, 46, a plumbing contractor who lives in Santa Ana and was on the team that won the event in 1987.

Stanfield said the secret is preparation, and the pair have fine-tuned their navigation skills and planning.

Vowed Stanfield, “We’re going to win--and the last time I said that was in ’87.”--DEBRA CANO