For decades 100 mph was a magic number in vehicle performance and everybody remembered the moment they were in control of a car or bike that ticked over into the mythical triple digits. It was more than a number on a speedometer; it was a rite of passage, a line that separated the merely fast from the genuinely exciting.

When AMA dirt track returned to the Springfield Mile after a long drought of biker fear, motorcycles had fully surpassed the old models used on the Illinois Mile and everyone knew that a 100 mph average lap was possible and likely to happen. Romero was edging the mid 90s in the late 1960s.

But who would do it first and enjoy a small piece of racing immortality?

Fittingly it was the late Ricky Graham who did it for the first time in 1982

"Ricky G" averaged 101.860 mph in the return to Springfield in '82.

Dave Despain was behind the microphone that night at Springfield and remembers it.

"One of my favorite RG memories is the first 100 mile per hour lap at Springfield. It happened in time trials. We knew it was possible - even likely - so the announcer laid out to let the crowd hear the motor. He never cracked the throttle, Graham ran the entire lap wide open and I'll never forget the sound of that puppy wailing down the back stretch and echoing off the grandstand."