Even among his many conquests, Progressive American Flat Track legend Jared Mees and the series’ most iconic event, the Mission Springfield Mile, have increasingly become synonymous with one another.

Over the course of his decorated career, Mees has tallied up seven wins at the prestigious race, including five of the last six and the last three in succession. And he’s done it in about every conceivable manner, stringing up a victims list including the likes of Sammy Halbert, Jake Johnson, Bryan Smith, Brad Baker, Briar Bauman, and Brandon Robinson, who have all suffered a checkered flag defeats of less than a tenth of a second at the Illinois State Fairgrounds at Mees’ hand.

And on other occasions, rather than executing an elegant game of chess, he’s simply smashed the board. Last year, for example, the factory Indian star registered back-to-back crushing victories of four+ and three+ seconds to kickstart his ultimately successful Mission SuperTwins presented by S&S Cycle championship fightback.

One could say that Mees has effectively owned the Springfield Mile in recent years. That general sentiment stands to spill over the fences that wrap the one-mile clay racetrack, as he and his wife, Nichole, have now taken the reins from Kiesow Racing and the Illinois Motorcycle Dealers Association as the promoters of the fabled event.

It might have seemed like an unusual development if Mees Promotions hadn’t already proven capable of promoting another of the series’ most important and historic races in the Mission Lima Half-Mile and done so to much acclaim.

As a result, Mees has established himself as among the most powerful figures in the sport, both on and off the track and figures to remain so well into the future.

He said, “Back in 2014 or 2015, the promoters at the Lima Half-Mile came to me and said they were interested in soon getting out of promoting Lima and asked if I had interest in it. And, yeah, I had some interest in it. We had to sit down and talk and look at things. After we did, we decided to commit to doing Lima.

“We took off with it. We've been successful with it, I think, and made some progress with it and feel like we face-lifted it up.

“It was the same kind of story with Springfield. I always kept in great contact with the previous promoters on things and how we could help one another out. I told them, 'Hey, when you guys are ready, you know, if you're interested, we're interested.’

“They came to me, actually, at the end of 2020 and approached me then. But with the whole COVID thing, I was very, very worried if the world was ever going to come back completely, so I decided I didn't want to take on promoting the Springfield Mile in 2021 as year one.

“I decided to hold off, and it came back as an opportunity at the end of 2021, and decided to go for it for 2022.”

It’s now necessary to balance Jared Mees the promoters with Jared Mees the racer, especially as the two entities are set to collide with this year’s Mission Springfield Mile I & II destined to play an outsized role in determining the outcome of this year’s thrilling championship fight.

The two actually co-exist quite happily, right up until race day. Mees explained, “Promoting is very, very, busy in spurts, and then it will go weeks or months with not really thinking a whole lot about it. Of course, the two or three weeks leading up to it are gangbusters, you know?

“Basically, leading up until the night before the race, I'm very hands-on. But the day of the race, I take my promoter hat off and put my helmet on. Nichole does an amazing job, and I have a good friend of mine, Steve Beattie, who has been with me since the day I took over the race at Lima, and he's also a very big help.”

There’s some irony in the fact that, while the new regulations introduced in 2022 for the purpose of balancing the playing field have upped the difficulty level in his attempt to retain the crown (and deteriorated his once near-total dominance of the Miles), they’ve also helped create an especially promotable weekend at Springfield.

Mees leads rival Briar Bauman by just nine points. Meanwhile, Estenson Racing Yamaha teammates Dallas Daniels and JD Beach are another 16 and 29 points back, and come armed with arguably the most potent Mile packages.

Along with Springfield’s tendency to produce extremely close racing (a Mees blowout here or there notwithstanding), it’s nearly impossible to predict what will happen this weekend nor how significantly the results will shift the championship outlook heading into the season’s final two races.

“Yeah, I wish I had a 40 point lead, but I've only got a nine point lead,” Mees said. “Springfield has been good to me in the past, but obviously the Indian is restricted this year. It's hard to be going into Springfield with especially high hopes of winning the race due to that. But we'll do the best we can and go forward.

"Still, it's an exciting weekend, it's basically our crown jewel – it's the Springfield Mile – and I'm looking forward to it. I’m just looking forward to having a good event, a good weekend, and a good, safe track for all the riders, and we’ll get it on.”