Staff Photo by Tim Barber George Tuma, of Berlin, Germany, stands in the open door of a 1961 Maserati 3500 GT. The car will compete in the La Carrera Panamericana, a 2,200-mile road race in Mexico.

It takes a certain breed to race vintage cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars through 2,000 miles of rough Mexican roadway, but Chattanoogan Byron DeFoor fits the bill.

Friday, DeFoor and a team of 11 drivers who make up Predator Performance Racing begin the La Carrera Panamericana. The race starts in Huatulco in Southern Mexico and covers 2,000 miles of bumpy, rugged, pothole-filled mountain roads, ending at the U.S. border at Texas.

“For the person that wins, it’s a big deal to have a car built that well,” DeFoor said. “Forty percent are out the first day.”

DeFoor and teammate David Hinton will be driving DeFoor’s 1966 silver and blue Jaguar XKE. The team’s other drivers will split time in the seats of five other cars — a 1961 Maserati, a 1968 Porsche, a 1967 BMW, a 1957 Jaguar and a 1965 Mustang. Their values range from about $50,000 to more than $150,000.

Russell Gee, a team member from Boston, said the beauty of the vintage cars is one of the best things in life.

“This is better than naked ladies,” he said, as he looked over the cars lined up before a day of test driving in the Chattanooga area.

Other members of the team include professional sports car racer Jim Pace from Mississippi. DeFoor is the only Chattanoogan on the team.

The cars will be among more than 150 vintage cars from around the world in the race. Last year was his first attempt at the race, and he was so enamored that he had to try it again. He remembers hearing about a driver wrecking a 1950s-era Mercedes Gullwing valued at around $600,000.

But DeFoor, who completed the difficult course last year in tact enough to bring the same Jaguar XKE back this time, said the reward is worth the risk.

“There are no big sporting events down there, so this is one of their biggest things,” Hinton said.

Along the route, thousands of spectators gather in small towns where everything including shuts down for the race. They believe the race and the sports cars are good luck, Hinton said.

“It’s the last event like this in the world,” Hinton said, “where anyone with enough money for the entry fee, and if you’ve got the best car, you can win.”

The race honors the fastest racers each day. Last year, DeFoor and Hinton won first- and second-place trophies for daily results.