Vic Wilson was welcomed home to be with his Heavenly Father when he passed away peacefully on July 12, 2025, at the 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, and he became a well-known promoter and successful entrepreneur.
His first business was a 24-hour service station on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach, California. But he also spent many weekends competing with his four-wheel-drive jeep, particularly in the sand dunes in Glamis, California, stacking up many wins. In 1965, he worked briefly for B.F. Meyers and started competing in a Meyers Manx dune buggy, 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.
In 1967, he founded Saddleback Park, a 400-acre property leased from The Irvine Company in Orange County, California. This was the first specialized off-road 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, except when heavy rain made the clay soil impassable, even for walking. (Visit https://saddlebackpark.com/ to read the complete history of the park and its current status.)
The same year he opened the gates to Saddleback Park, he started promoting “The Bug In,” an event that originally was just for dune buggies but soon evolved to include a variety of Volkswagen-powered vehicles. The Bug In was held twice a year at Orange County International Raceway and included many types of competitions, such as drags, a car show, slalom racing and even a Bug-In Beauty Queen contest. It was held twice a year until the track closed in 1983. At the end, it was drawing thousands of participants and spectators, and it was even copied across the pond in Belgium.
In 1980, Vic retired from the full-time promotion business. Based on his expertise in not only managing a motorcycle park but also designing one, he then consulted for the State of California in its Off-Highway Vehicle department, building motorcycle parks throughout the state for 16 years. He admitted he was happiest making trails and tracks while driving his John Deere 450 tractor.
Promoting was in his blood, so he continued 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. Due to the accident, he had to undergo open-heart surgery months later. This made him decide to play more, so he bought his first of many motor homes to start years of traveling with his wife, BJ, across the United States. In their travels, they visited 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 could count, he would travel to Baja California with good friends Jerry Platt and Peter Perrin, exploring the most remote areas on their motorcycles. They traveled very lightly 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 was also 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, one can appreciate how he influenced the off-road industry. As an inductee into the Off-Road Hall of Fame, here is a partial quote about Vic: “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, visit 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 (BJ); 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 sons Kila Keuma (Samantha) and Keenan Copp (Tara); and 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 4 at 1:30 p.m. at the Shadow Mountain Church in Gardnerville, Nevada.CN
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