Vic Wilson
April 12, 1935 – July 12, 2025
Vic was welcomed home to be with his Heavenly Father when he passed away peacefully on July 12, 2025, at age of 90 in his home in Gardnerville, Nevada. He was born on April 12, 1935, in Glendale, California, the third child of Omar and Janice Wilson. The family migrated to Vista, California where his father, with his oldest son, E.R. developed and ran a large Avocado ranch in Bonsall, California. This was a family operation, so everyone worked. Vic recalled how he got his own personal picking bag for Christmas. This work ethic carried him through his life where he became a well known promoter and successful entrepreneur.
His first business was a 24 hour service station on Pacific Coast Hwy in Newport Beach, California. But he also spent many weekends competing with his 4-wheel drive jeep particularly in the sand dunes in Glamis, California, stacking up many 1st place wins. In 1965 he worked briefly for Bruce F. Meyers and started competing in a Meyers Manx, which led to his first Baja 1000 win in 1967. He later repeated winning the Baja 1000 in 1970 in a Drino Miller designed vehicle.
He founded Saddleback Park in 1967. 400 acres leased from The Irvine Company in Orange County, California. This was the first specialized off-road park facility in the United States, and it featured one of the first motocross tracks in this country. He operated the park from 1967 to 1980. Open 365 days a year and only closed when heavy rain as the clay soil became impassable, even to walk. (Check out SaddlebackPark.com to read the complete history of the park and the current status.)
The same year he opened the gates to Saddleback Park, he started promoting The Bug In,
which originally included all Dune Buggies, but soon evolved into only Volkswagens. This event was held twice a year with many types of competitions, such as drags, car show, slalom, and even a Bug-In Beauty Queen at Orange County International Raceway, closing in 1983. At the end it was drawing 1000 participants and large spectator attendance in the thousands and was copied even across the pond. Rich Kimball brought it back in 2005 and promoted it at various speedways with the final one in October 2024.
In 1980 Vic retired from the full time promotion business. Based on his expertise for not only managing a motorcycle park, but also designing one, he then consulted for the State of California in their Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHV) department, building motorcycle parks throughout the state for 16 years. He admits he was his happiest making trails and tracks while driving his John Deere 450 Tractor.
Promoting was in his blood, so he did continue to do small scale events, one of which was an industry ride from Mammoth Mountain in California to Hawthorne Nevada over two days with about 150 riders, called the Saddleback Safari. Unfortunately, in preparing for this ride, he had a head on collision with a rider who should not have been on the trail. Sounds crazy, but this accident did cause him to have open heart surgery months later. This made him decide to play more, so bought his first of many, motor homes to start years of traveling with [his wife] BJ across this amazing United States. In these travels they were in every State, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Even after the injuries from the accident, he didn’t give up riding his motorcycle. For more years than he can count, he would travel to Baja California with good friends, Jerry Platt and Peter Perrin exploring the most remote areas on their motorcycles. They travelled very light with only backpacks.
In 1983, he and BJ moved to Topaz Lake, Nevada, enjoying fishing, and golfing. He served on the Topaz Lake Volunteer Fire Department for 21 years and also was a licensed driving instructor for fire equipment. Always one to stay busy, Vic started working with various contractors and developers to construct private homes. He was still active up to the end.
In the movie Dust to Glory,
Vic stated As you go through life, if you knew you were making history you would have paid more attention to it.
In looking back on his accomplishments, you can appreciate how he influenced the off-road industry. As an Inductee into the Off-Road Hall of Fame, here is a partial quote, Fortunately since the inception of organized off-road racing he has won races and helped shape the places where people can ride and drive thereby ensuring that his name holds a firm place in the written history of Off-road motorsports.
To read more on his career, go to https://ormhof.org/vic-wilson/. Through Saddleback Park and other promotions, he touched thousands of lives, giving them lifelong memories.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Betty Jean (B.J). Sister Nancy Raven, three sons, Jeff (Otto), Bruce (Dorothy), and Ken (Angela). Four grandchildren: Heather, Lauren Martindale (Mark), Spencer and Annie Daff (Drew),; two great grandchildren Meacham and Miller … goddaughter Debra Platt with two sons Kila Keuma (Samantha) and Keenan Copp (Tara). Also, several nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers a donation may be made to DAWG https://www.dawgrescue.com/ or Austin’s house https://austinshousenv.org/.
A service will be held on October 4th, 1:30 PM at the Shadow Mountain Church in Gardnerville, Nevada.
Source: nevadaappeal.com/obituaries/2025/aug/26/vic-wilson/
