Residents voice concerns over planned race track in Allen County
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Residents in southern Allen County are expressing concerns over a proposed private racetrack that could be built near Fort Wayne International Airport.
Our partners at WPTA-TV report those concerns were expressed during a meeting this week with officials from the Summit City Motorsports Club, which wants to build the track on a 380-acre parcel of land near the town of Yoder.
The club, owned by local entrepreneurs Bill Bean, Tom Kelley and Chuck Surack, have said the track would be primarily used by club members to race their own, street-legal cars.
Surack previously told The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne that the project could cost $40 million to $60 million. While designs haven’t been finalized, he estimated the track would be 3-4.5 miles in length.
Residents such as Ken Ryder told WPTA they are wondering what benefits the track would bring for the community.
“I don’t see where this economic boost is going to come in,” Ryder said. “There’s no profit that’s going to be made by this. It’s just they’ve got their Lamborghinis. They have their Corvettes. They have their racecars [and] they want to go out and play pretend racecar driver, and this is going to be their go-kart track.”
Other residents cited concerns over noise and traffic. Bean, who spoke at the gathering, said they are looking at ways to mitigate any noise issues.
“We’re going to have sound engineers involved in the final layout of the track,” Bean said.
The Summit City Motorsports Club has filed a special use application with the Allen County Board of Zoning Appeals to use the land near Branstrator and Hamilton roads for the track.
The board is expected to schedule a public hearing on the application in the coming days, according to WPTA. Bean noted that the process is still in the very early stages.
“We want this to be a very positive thing for the community, and if we can’t make it that, then we probably won’t do the project,” he said.