As of Monday, Nov. 4, no evidence was found in Riverside County Superior Court records of a lawsuit that was used as a pretext for closing the Lake Elsinore motocross track.

Road racing world Editor-in-Chief Michael Gougis, a former newspaper reporter who covers court cases (and currently a college journalism professor), looked at the court's online records today and found nothing.

Gougis reported: “An electronic search of the civil cases filed in the Superior Court of California, Riverside County, revealed no dispute with the name of the deceased child. There have been no civil lawsuits using the child’s last name and the track name, and the last lawsuit using the track name was filed in 2017.”

The Lake Elsinore track is in Riverside County.

JUST IN:

A person who identified himself as Pat Fowler of Lake Elsinore MX Circuit called Road racing world office and said he wanted to talk about a press release. He was told he needed to speak to an editor and would receive a call back. When Michael Gougis called him back, Fowler said he had been served with papers, but refused to provide further details, declined to name the law firm representing the trail and when asked to provide copies of the documents to him to send the served papers, said “It’s none of your business” and hung up. A call back to the number was not answered. We will provide further information as it becomes available.

MORE, INCLUDING THAT THE ACTUAL PROBLEM MAY BE “An Unexpected Loss of Operating Income to the Property Owner”:

Comments from Lake Elsinore Mayor Steve Manos posted on the Whats Up Lake Elsinore Facebook page:

Very unfortunate series of events…absolutely terrible news.

I need to make a few corrections to the comments here that are false, rumors, or outright lies.

1. The city does not own the land where the motocross is located.

2. The application for a camp on this site is dead.

3. When the current owner approached the city about development (the logistics area), the city had not only expressed serious concerns about reducing traffic, but had also made it clear that the motocross track was important to the community and that any development Should include: plan to relocate the route.

4. This closure announcement was a surprise to the city. We didn't see it coming.

5. The city is not involved in the lawsuit.

6. The City has no involvement in the business operations of the motocross track other than being a regulatory body.

7. I personally have no personal business connection to the property owner or business owner. Never. This can be tracked through 700 submissions.

8. The motocross track operator leased their place from the property owner…the owner could have closed it down a long time ago. My understanding is that this is an unexpected loss of operating income for the property owner.

9. There is nothing that can replace the motocross track any time soon. Each project would take at least two years to plan. The site could last for a decade.

10. Motocross is part of the DNA of the City of Lake Elsinore. This is one of the reasons why we adopted the motto “Dream Extreme”. Not a good day.

This is a loss for the operator, the property owner, the townspeople and most importantly the family of the little girl who lost her life. All in all a tragedy. We will discuss this internally, but this is a private operation… I'm not sure what the city can do to help.