The organizer of the motocross race in Pala that created a traffic jam on Highway 76 earlier this month said attendance and traffic estimates released by authorities were overblown.

California Highway Patrol officers said the Sept. 11 event at the Pala Raceway created a traffic mess that extended from the Pala Indian Reservation to the outer limits of Oceanside.

A CHP officer told the North County Times days after the event that about 25,000 people were expected at the 2010 Lucas Oil AMA Motocross Championship, but more than twice that number showed up, clogging the two-lane highway for hours.

Ryan Ouellette, president of MX Motopark Industries, the company that operates the Pala Raceway, said those initial estimates were too high. He said only about 14,000 people fit in the event venue and only about 8,400 people could have been on the road on their way to the event.

That means that only about 22,400 people could have come to the race, he said.
Ouellette said he arrived at the road estimate by taking the eight-mile stretch of Highway 76 from the event site west and dividing it by about 20 feet of car space giving him a total of about 2,104 vehicles on the road. Then, he multiplied that number by 4 occupants per car, giving him a total of 8,416 people.

"While these are estimates, they are far more accurate than the 60,000 printed in (the North County Times) article," Ouellette said.

Organizers hired four CHP officers to oversee traffic, but the agency had to dispatch an additional six officers to the event when cars began to back up when the parking lot filled up.

Sgt. Scott Payson, who was supervising the officers, said the initial estimates may have been too high.

Payson said officers may have been repeating word-of-mouth estimates, some of which were as many as 80,000 people. A more accurate estimate was about 20,000 to 25,000 people, both at the event and on the road, Payson said.
The vehicles on the road may have included area residents, casino traffic and others travelers, Payson said.

"The rumor was 80,000, but when you break it down mathematically, that is just impossible," Payson said.

Part of the reason for the backup was that organizers were allowing people to pay for parking and tickets to the event at the entrance to the parking lot, which slowed the flow of traffic. And once the parking lot filled up, vehicles were turned away.

People parked on the side of the road and walked to the event, Payson said.
No matter how many people actually attended or attempted to go, traffic on Highway 76 was chaotic, the sergeant said.

"I was there; I was in the middle of it, and it was a mess," Payson said.
The Pala Raceway is on land owned by the Pala Band of Mission Indians, but the race track is operated by an independent company, MX Sports Pro Racing of Encinitas. The Pala reservation is located about 15 miles north of Escondido and about five miles east of Interstate 15 on Highway 76.

The motocross track, which opened in 2008, is on 240 acres about 1.5 miles east of the Pala Casino and about seven miles east of Interstate 15. It has eight dirt tracks for different types of motocross riders.

Pala Chairman Robert Smith said the tribe has not decided whether to allow another event of that magnitude. He said the traffic not only affected residents in the surrounding community, but the tribe's casino patrons and other casinos further east on Highway 76, including Casino Pauma in Pauma Valley.

"If we were even to consider it again, it would have to be well-organized and limit the number of tickets, because it really impacted the backcountry and there is really only one way in and out," Smith said.

King Freeman, a Pala tribal member who owns the Pala Store on Highway 76, said he was upset by the traffic the race created and the negative publicity it brought to the tribe, even though it was not organized by Pala.

"It affected a lot of people," King said. "It affected people that were going to Pauma and Rincon. It was all day and traffic was stopped. It was a mess."
Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.