This was one of my favorite research projects at the newspaper.

Robert Pope, a former managing editor at The State Journal-Register, read an article someplace about people who drive faster than 100 mph. He wanted to find out if there were locals who’d done it and ask them why.

The trick was finding them. I looked through circuit court records, but speeding tickets aren’t documented according to speed. One day I was on a ride-alone with a traffic deputy for the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, and the subject came up. He explained to me under what traffic law a 100-mph ticket would be issued (speeding 40+ mph over the limit). Now I had a starting point.

The folks at the Sangamon County circuit clerk’s office were kind enough to give me a workspace in their office, and I started combing through the ticket files. I made notes on a yellow legal pad as I went along. Voila! I had a story.

From there I tracked down locals who’d been ticketed for driving more than 100 mph, and the result was a unique story about the so-called “Century Club.”

Century club / Since 2003, 124 motorists in Sangamon County have been ticketed for driving more than 100 mph
Aug. 1, 2005

Jason Shephard doesn’t have a pilot’s license. But, man, can he fly.

Shephard, 21, drives a silver 1997 Chevrolet Corvette he’s had since April 2004.

He didn’t really set out to buy a Corvette, a car some associate with “old guys,” but the price was right, so he took it home. To curb those “old guy” assumptions, he got personalized plates that say “NOTDADZ.”

The kid’s got a sense of humor.

The Illinois State Police trooper who clocked him going 128 miles per hour on Interstate 55 just south of Springfield last fall had a sense of humor, too, later telling Shephard he should have asked to see his pilot’s license.

“When he stopped me, he said, ‘Do you know how fast you were going?’ I was hoping he got me after I slowed down, so I said, ‘Probably 90?’ He just laughed and said, ‘Try 128,’” Shephard recalled. “He could have arrested me right there. I really thought I was going to jail that night.”

Shephard, who was too embarrassed to mention the ticket to his friends and family at the time, is a reluctant member of what some call the “century club,” drivers who are cited for going faster than 100 mph.

Between 2003 and the beginning of July this year, 124 motorists were ticketed in Sangamon County for going 100 mph or faster, according to a review of tickets filed with the county circuit clerk. The clerk’s office, in all, processed 133,573 traffic tickets during that time.

Neither the circuit clerk nor local police agencies track how many drivers are cited for going 100 mph or faster. Speeding tickets entered in the court computer system indicate the increments of speed over the posted limit – driving 1 to 10 mph over the limit, 11 to 14 over, 15 to 20 over and so on. Drivers ticketed for going 100 mph or faster fall into the categories of either 31-plus or 40-plus over the limit, depending on where they were caught.

Among the review’s findings:

* Of the 124 “century club” tickets, 34 were written for driving 100 mph, nine were for 101 mph and 19 were for 102 mph. The rest were for driving 103 mph or faster, of which seven were issued to drivers speeding 110 mph or faster.

* Seventy-four percent of the drivers were men.

* The tickets show that 79 percent of those cited did not live in the area. Many were from Chicago, St. Louis or out of state.

* The average age of the 100 mph-plus motorist was about 26. The oldest driver cited was a 62-year-old Chicago woman in a maroon Lincoln who was ticketed for going 100 mph after she passed a state trooper on I-55 north of Sherman at 7:30 a.m. The youngest was a 14-year-old Chatham girl stopped by a Chatham officer for going 100 mph on Illinois 4 at the Interstate 72 overpass at 3:15 a.m.

* The majority of the stops, 91 percent, took place on interstates 55 or 72. Of those, 24 percent were between I-55 mile markers 104 and 110. The Sherman exit is at mile marker 105, and the Williamsville exit is at 109. The interstate becomes three lanes just north of Sherman.

* Thirteen percent were between I-55 mile markers 87 and 93. An exit for East Lake Shore Drive is at mile marker 88, and the South Sixth Street exit is at mile marker 92. And 10 percent of the stops were on I-72 between mile markers 107 and 115. An exit for Riverton is at mile marker 108 and one for Buffalo-Mechanicsburg is at 114.

* Predictably, state troopers made most of the traffic stops, 100 of them to be exact. The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office made 17. The rest were made by officers from Chatham, Divernon, Illiopolis, Southern View, Jerome and the Secretary of State Police.

* The stops took place all times of the day. Forty-five were during what is considered a typical police agency’s third shift, between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.; 42 were between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.; and 35 were between 3 and 11 p.m. The times of two of the stops could not be determined.

* The average vehicle age was a 1999 model. Colors varied: 20 black, 19 white, 18 silver, 15 red, 10 blue, 10 maroon, nine green and seven gray. The rest were other colors.

* Tickets indicate vehicle manufacturers but not necessarily the models. Of those that were stopped, 16 were Chevrolets and 15 were Fords. Most other makes were represented, as well as one Maserati and at least two motorcycles.

Shephard, of Springfield, ended up at the top of the list in terms of speed. At 128 mph, he was driving the fastest when stopped, followed by motorists going 124, 121, 118 and three who were stopped for going 110 mph. The rest were between 108 and 100 mph.

“I never drive like that going through town or when other people are around because you never know what people are going to do. I just happened to be messing around that night and a cop was there,” Shephard said.

He recalled it was an unusually nice November night. Ordinarily, he puts his Corvette away for the winter, but he decided to drive it that night because the weather was so pleasant.

Nobody was on the interstate between Toronto Road and Sixth Street, and he thought maybe he could get home a little faster. By the time he saw the trooper parked in the median, it was too late. He hit the brakes and pulled over as soon as he saw the cop pull out.

A judge eventually fined him $500.

“I definitely don’t speed around town anymore,” he said, explaining that he sometimes drag races the Corvette at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis to quench his need for speed.

James McKinney, 16, found himself grounded, car-less and face to face with a judge this spring after he was caught driving 108 mph on I-55.

McKinney drives a black 1993 Chevrolet Caprice Classic with a plush burgundy interior and a fancy custom wood steering wheel.

Early March 27, he and two friends decided to drive out to a teen hangout on Toronto Road to see what was going on. They didn’t stay long before turning around to get back on the interstate to return to town.

Three teenagers. Springtime. The open road. A sweet car with a V-8 engine. It wasn’t long before McKinney was cruising well over the 65 mph speed limit. A Sangamon County deputy clocked him on the radar doing 108 and pulled him over.

“I’ve slowed down since then,” McKinney said, recalling that the deputy didn’t say anything to him when he walked up to the car – just looked at him and shook his head.

“After he gave me the ticket, he was cool and started talking about my car,” he said. “That car rides so smooth on the interstate, you don’t even know you’re going that fast.”

His mother wasn’t quite as cool about the situation, he admitted. She grounded him for two weeks, took his car keys away and drove the Caprice herself; McKinney can’t stand other people driving his car.

His initial fine was $1,000, he said. The judge ordered him to read “Then Darkness Fled: The Liberating Wisdom of Booker T. Washington” and pay $150 instead. McKinney said he read the book but couldn’t pay the fine, so the judge gave him 30 hours of community service and two years’ probation.

District 9 state police trooper Vince Fisher, who also is a safety education officer, said driving more than 40 mph over the speed limit is a Class A misdemeanor, meaning that, depending on the circumstances, an officer can arrest drivers going that fast and take them to jail.

Fisher has seen pictures of cars that wrecked going 100 mph.

“They’re not even hardly recognizable as cars. It just looks like somebody took it and smashed it up into a little ball,” he said. “Usually the cars come apart and everything else does, too, including the people inside the car. Your chances of survival are real slim because you’ve got such dynamics involved. It creates thousands and thousands of pounds of force.”