Jimmy Filice (17) leads Keith Pinkstaff (21) and John Ashmead (37) at the 1986 Sears Point Raceway (Now Infineon Raceway) AMA Superbike Championship race in Sonoma, California. Filice was riding a factory Yamaha FZ750, Pinkstaff was on a nearly stock Suzuki GSXR750 and Ashmead on a factory-back Honda VF750. The new Yamaha Superbikes had connecting rods issues that year and Filice’s bike blew up. Yamaha (Filice and teammate John Kocinski) temporarily pulled out of the series while they tried to solve the issues with the bike. Ashmead finished fifth at Sears Point that year, Pinkstaff a very solid 8th – not bad for racing what essentially was a Supersport bike. Check out the crude track shaving presumably to smooth out bumps. It looks like the traction through the ground-up section was decent. I’d be interested in hearing from riders who raced the section to find out what they would say.
Jimmy Filice (17) leads Keith Pinkstaff (21) and John Ashmead (37) at the 1986 Sears Point Raceway (Now Infineon Raceway) AMA Superbike Championship race in Sonoma, California. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
I know I’m picky but…that’s not a VFR, it’s a VF
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That’s right. It is a VF750. Thanks. I updated.
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Scarification never improved Summit Point much. The tires wiggled so much you couldn’t tell what was normal from what was a slide…
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I didn’t ride Sears at this time, but I’ve ridden other tracks that were surface ground/shaved like this, most recently Eagles Canyon Raceway, northwest of For Worth. Sketchy at best. Squirmy and dusty, this surface does nothing to boost confidence. Some other tracks over the years also had this ground down surface, and they were equally bad.
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