WAKARUSA, Kan. — The relaxed, idyllic countryside around Kent and Jesse Prather’s shop in this rural area south of Topeka belies the ferocity of what goes on inside the unassuming red barn that is the home of Prather Racing.

 This father-and-son family business builds MG and Mazda sports car racing engines for a nationwide clientele and hauls customers’ cars to races in a covered trailer to provide servicing for a race weekend. Kent’s wife, Kathy, and Jesse’s wife, Jamie, are integral parts of the business.

 The Prathers are more than successful mechanics. They are successful racers, too. Kent drove his 1963 MG-A to six national championships in the Sports Car Club of America. Jesse drives a Mazda Miata and has scored two successive national championships at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Topeka’s Heartland Park.

 While the bulk of the Prathers’ business is building engines and race-prepping small sports cars, the elephant in their shop is a 1971 Lola T260 owned by Andy Hauck III of Cincinnati. This vintage sports racer is one of two Lolas built for the legendary Scot Jackie Stewart to race in the SCCA’s Canadian-American Challenge Cup. At the time, the unlimited Can-Am cars were the fastest on the planet. Gigantic V-8 engines producing in excess of 800 horsepower were mounted in the back of tiny cars that weighed less than 2,000 pounds. These cars flirted with 200-mile-per-hour speeds in an era when aerodynamics were just coming of age, and serious accidents were commonplace.

 Hauck bought his car at an auction in 2006 after it spent years in a museum. Because the Prathers already maintained a race car for Hauck, it was natural for him to send the Lola to their shop for a complete mechanical restoration. They completely disassembled the car. The original 8.1-liter Chevrolet engine was put in storage for safekeeping. It was replaced with a Keith Black racing engine that the Prathers modified to accept the fuel-injection system and exhaust headers from the original engine.

 The Prathers maintain Hauck’s Lola and take it to races for him. Last July, Hauck competed with the car at the vintage sports car races at the Road America track near Elkhart Lake, Wis., until an axle broke. The car was on the track in early May at Road Atlanta in Georgia, bellowing like a bull and pawing at the pavement with tires as wide as a steamroller. Can-Am cars were a wild ride, and still are.     

Andy Hauck, left, and Kent Prather, above.