Memorial Honors Victims in Fatal Race Accident

Four San Diego men among eight killed in 2010 tragedy

Several dozen people gathered quietly Sunday afternoon in Barstow, feet away from a large, gray ribbon that stood between a trail of white rocks shaped in a figure eight.

Eight names engraved into the monument.

Eight people who tragically lost their lives one year ago.

On Aug. 14, 2010, four San Diego men were among the eight spectators fatally struck when a San Marcos off-road racer's Ford Ranger slammed into a crowd during the MDR California 200, a 200-mile evening race at Soggy Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. The Sunday memorial service honored them.

Michael Dickinson, 34, lived in Spring Valley. Aaron Farkas, 25, Anthony Sanchez, 23, and Brian Wolfin, 27, were all from Escondido. Danica Frantzich, Andrew Therrinn, Zachary Freeman and Dustin Malson were also killed.

The memorial, located at Slash X Ranch, will preserve their memory.

Twenty-two shrubs along 22 lights are planted to signify each person injured in the crash. Among the 22 lights, one illumniates an American flag, which stands at the middle of the display's entrance.

The ribbon was first unveiled last October in the 2010 Lucas Oil Off-Road Expo in Pomona, Calif.

On Sunday, Steve Hanson, chaplain at Racers for Christ, and Lucas Hand, project leader at Fast-AID, which helped assemble the memorial, led the emotional service. It began at 6 p.m. and was attended by the victims' families, friends, volunteers and other members of the racing community.

Among those members, Austin Farner attended the ceremony and catalogued it afterward in a blog post.

"Now, truly," Farner wrote, "we can say that the eight lost and 22 injured on that tragic night one year ago will never be forgotten."

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