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Ecologist happy auto auction scrapping Speedway site plans

The sign at South Bend Motor Speedway, 25698 State Road 2. Owner Kevin Sauer says he's found a buyer and they're not interested in continuing racing at the site.
Jeff Parrott/WVPE
The sign at South Bend Motor Speedway, 25698 State Road 2. An auto auction has dropped its plans to buy the former speedway site over concerns it would damage the county's last known large black oak savanna.

In the face of heavy opposition, an auto auction has dropped its plans to develop a new location at the former South Bend Motor Speedway.

The Warren Township land at State Road 2 and Peach Road contains what’s perhaps St. Joseph County’s last big black oak savanna habitat. Its unique sandy soils look more like the dunes around Lake Michigan, left from the glacier melt some 10 to 15,000 years ago.

The auction’s attorney, Dick Nussbaum, has said his client couldn’t make the project financially viable while preserving the most ecologically sensitive areas.

Ecologist Steve Sass, who mapped those areas and gave the maps to the auto auction, says he’s happy.

"I was awfully proud that so many people from the community came out to show support for trying to save this little last bit of precious ecosystem that we have but the story is far from over as far as what's going to happen to that property," Sass said.

Sass hopes a preservation-focused entity will buy the land so native species can be planted and recover.

"Now it potentially just goes right back up for sale again and we're back to ground zero, so to speak."

Parrott, a longtime public radio fan, comes to WVPE with about 25 years of journalism experience at newspapers in Indiana and Michigan, including 13 years at The South Bend Tribune. He and Kristi live in Granger and have two children currently attending Indiana University in Bloomington. In his free time he enjoys fixing up their home, following his favorite college and professional sports teams, and watching TV (yes that's an acceptable hobby).