As it is to the fifth-generation farmer on the homestead, the dirt at the oval track of the Springfield Mile is sacred ground to 40-year-old Jared Mees.
He’s won the annual motorcycle race in the capital city 10 times, and with it a lot of prize money. He also was married on the soil of the track in 2013. So, it was no surprise to find Mees on a recent weekday tending the dirt with the caring hands of a masseur or a potter, getting the track ready for a race for which he is now its official promoter.
And, boy, does Mees have a race to sell you.
“Springfield is the most legendary flat track race in the world,” Mees told Illinois Times. “Fifty, 60 years ago, the Springfield Mile was so iconic that just winning that race alone gave you the No. 1 plate, the championship. Now, it’s part of a 16-race series, and this year’s Springfield Mile will mark the final two rounds of the 16-race championships. The champions will be crowned, so for us this is our Daytona 500, our Super Bowl. This is it.”
The first Springfield Mile American Motorcycle Association race took place in 1937 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, with Lester Hilbish winning on his Indian motorcycle. The one-mile oval track quickly became known as the “world’s fastest dirt mile,” partially because of its clay-based soil compound.
In fact, Springfield remains home to the world record for the fastest one-mile, two-wheeled dirt track time, a time of 34.548 seconds set by Ricky Graham in 1984 at an average speed of 104.203 mph. Mees’ fastest time in Springfield was 37.018, and he probably would have gone on to win many more Springfield Mile competitions had he not chosen to retire from racing in 2024.
Broken bones and numerous surgeries – not to mention a growing young family – convinced Mees to get off the bike and into the C-suites of the management side of the business full time. He is now the event promoter for the Springfield Mile and runs Mees Promotions along with his wife, Nichole, a former racer herself.
They first met as competitors at the Springfield Mile, and in 2012 he proposed to her on stage after winning the race. A year later, they were married at the starting point on the oval track.
“With Springfield being what it is to this sport, and to us both personally as racers, this just became an obvious place for us to want to get married,” Mees said. “I could have kept racing myself, but any time you get on a bike, it’s a bit of a gamble. With a family now, I just felt like that’s a gamble I didn’t want to take.”
Mees said motorcycle racing’s popularity has dipped some in recent years, a trend he attributes to perhaps fewer younger people being as interested in outdoor motorsports as older generations. In 1937, not many people had ever even seen men going fast on motorcycles or even motorcycles themselves. Their ubiquity today, not to mention a million other things competing for their eyeballs, makes it a tougher sell. But the energetic Mees is set on changing that.
“Our demographic has always tended to be a bit older, and today’s generation. … believe me, if I knew, I’d have already fixed the problem,” he said. “But you just have to keep investing and stay after it, and give people good entertainment and good racing.”
Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau director Scott Dahl said a separate Harley-Davidson group ride from a Chicago suburb to the State Fairgrounds will precede this year’s Springfield Mile, which he says usually attracts visitors from as many as 20 states. Riders will depart from Conrad’s Harley-Davidson in Shorewood, about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, and travel down Route 66 to the fairgrounds for the Route 66 Centennial Harley-Davidson Ride.
An amateur race, held at the Multi-Purpose Arena at the fairgrounds, takes place on Friday, with the main event on Saturday, Sept. 6.
“This race is iconic to this city,” Dahl said. “With this being the 100th birthday this year of Route 66, too, I think you’re going to find that even more people will come out to visit and take in the race this year. A lot of people make it a weekend trip, and it’s always good for the city’s economy.”
The only thing Mees doesn’t want to visit this year’s race: rain.
“With races, the weather pretty much dictates everything,” he said. “If we have good weather, we’re gonna have a great crowd. If we don’t, we gotta dodge bullets, you know?”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that Jared Mees is an independent event promoter and not employed by Progressive American Flat Track.
This article appears in August 27-September 2, 2026.
