Hill Had It Going at Sears Point ’86

• Larry Lawrence

Malcolm Hill (No. 181) and Rich Arnaiz (No. 327) battle through the final turn at Sears Point Raceway during the 1986 AMA Superbike race at the Northern California circuit. Hill and Arnaiz were riding solidly inside the top ten, here battling for seventh, in a loaded field that day at Sears. Hill, a rider best known for his club racing exploits at Willow Springs, had one of his best AMA Superbike outings going, mixing it up with riders like Arnaiz, factory Honda’s Bubba Shobert, Kosar Racing’s Ottis Lance and Vance & Hines Suzuki teammates Scott Gray and Doug Toland. Unfortunately for Hill, he crashed out of the race, pitching it in turn nine and sliding all the way to turn 10 forcing a trailing Gary Goodfellow into the dirt to avoid him. Hill went on to work as a rider advocate in the 1990s, helping to negotiate marketing deals in an era when Superbike racing was just starting to come to the attention of corporate America.

Malcolm Hill (No. 181) and Rich Arnaiz (No. 327) battle through the final turn at Sears Point Raceway during the 1986 AMA Superbike race at the circuit. Hill and Arnaiz were riding solidly inside the top ten, here battling for seventh, in a loaded field that day at Sears. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Malcolm Hill (No. 181) and Rich Arnaiz (No. 327) battle through the final turn at Sears Point Raceway during the 1986 AMA Superbike race at the Northern California circuit. Hill and Arnaiz were riding solidly inside the top ten, here battling for seventh, in a loaded field that day at Sears. (Larry Lawrence photo)

4 thoughts on “Hill Had It Going at Sears Point ’86”

  1. Larry,
    I believe one could argue that the 86/87 Superbike fields were the strongest ever in American roadracing, producing six future World Champions. (Wayne R., Kevin S., Fred M., John K., Doug P., Doug T.) Did I miss anyboday? Eddie L. did a one off in AMA at Daytona in ’86, the year of his first World Championship. Rich Arnaiz claimed the 1990 European Superbike Championship on a Rumi Honda follwoing our ’89 Team Motor Sport Yamaha effort.

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  2. Larry,
    We were running Michelins and when we went for our tire change before race they had run out of the preferred medium. We ran a hard and I lost the rear. Shared the ER with Scott G. Thank god were were both ok.

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