With more than eighty entrants expected to compete, Southern California off-road racing fans were looking forward to an exciting night at the California 200. The fifty-mile long course was located to the east and north of the small town of Lucerne Valley, California. The timed race started on Saturday night at 7:30 pm and was to have been completed by 3:00 am the next morning. Scoring would have been completed in time for the awards ceremony on Sunday at 10:00 am at the start-finish line.

The race started with cars leaving one at a time at intervals, with the faster classes leaving first. Les than thirty minutes after the start and only about three miles from the start line, a truck driven by Brett Sloppy lost control at an area of jumps. The truck hit spectators who were bunched much closer to the race track than the 100 foot limit set by the organizers of the event. It would seem that the spectators ignored the possibility of injuries if a competitor lost control or a vehicle had a mechanical failure.

The accident resulted in eight fatalities and more than a dozen injuries requiring transport to hospitals by helicopter. Because of the remote location of the event it took more than thirty minutes for the victims to be removed from the scene.

The spectators killed were:

Michael James Dickinson, 34, a resident of Spring Valley, California.

Aaron Farkas, 26, a resident of Escondido, California.

Danica Frantzich, 20, a resident of Las Vegas , Nevada.

Zachary Freeman, 24, a resident of Fillmore, California.

Dustin C. Malson, 24, a resident of Ventura, California.

Anthony Sanchez, 23, a resident of Escondido, California.

Andrew Therrien, 22, a resident of Riverside, California.

Brian Allan Wolfin, 27, a resident of Escondido, California.

R.I.P