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American LeMans
Heroes Of ALMS: Robin Hill & LisaKay Golde
John Dagys tells the tales of two team members that rarely live in the spotlight, and of the highly unique paths they’ve taken to work in the ALMS.
John Dagys  |  Posted August 08, 2009   Lexington, OH
Hill (L) plays an active role as team manager, calling the shots from behind the wall. (Patron Highcroft Racing)

In a series known for its fast, cutting-edge cars, the people that help create the speed rarely live in the spotlight. John Dagys tells the tales of two team members, and the unique paths they’ve taken to the ALMS.

Robin Hill: Trackside Warrior

He’s been run over on pit road, survived a near-death medical experience and his heart relies on a pacemaker to get him through the day. But none of these setbacks have stopped Robin Hill from his passion of motorsports. In fact, the Australian-born car builder-turned mechanic-turned team manager has been following his dreams for more than 30 years, and isn’t about to stop anytime soon.

Growing up near London in the town of Woking, Hill quickly learned he was mechanically inclined. He remembers getting his hands dirty working on motorbikes and cars, also helping his uncle service rally cars.

“I’ve always wanted to take things apart and put them back together,” Hill said. “It didn’t matter what it was, I just wanted to find out how things worked. When I was 12 or 13, I took a lawnmower apart, and soon after built a go-kart from scratch.”

After leaving school at 16, he went to college for one year, but soon determined that higher education wouldn’t deliver the knowledge he sought most.

Instead, he became an apprentice at a road car garage in his home town. Shortly afterward, he met an employee from British racing car constructor Ralt Cars, which was based in neighboring Byfleet. After a visit to Ralt Cars, Hill was bitten by the racing bug.

Working for Ralt from 1982-1984, He built Formula 2 and Formula 3 race cars in the winter months. For much of his 12-plus hour days, Hill worked in a bay inside the workshop, where he constructed cars according to their build sheets.

“When I first started off at Ralt, it was such a different environment than your everyday businesses,” Hill said. “All the kids I grew up with were all going out to be plumbers or carpenters or brick layers, or basic mechanics with normal 8-to-5 jobs.

“Where at Ralt, you were paid hourly, so the more hours you were paid, the more money you got. I used to try and get to work at 6 a.m. and probably stayed until 8 or 10 at night. It just fascinated me to the point where I wanted to stay there and do it all the time. It also gave me an opportunity to see how flexible, yet demanding, the racing industry can be.”

His job at Ralt turned out to be the stepping stone to becoming a race mechanic. Hill moved to Germany to work for Bertrand Schafer in the European F3 Championship. As the junior mechanic, Hill was responsible for the entire front-end of the single-seater during race weekends and also back at the shop in Bitburg. His orders came direct from the team engineer, who needed components such as shocks and springs changed, and adjustments such as camber, toe and bump steer to the front-end geometry of the car.

“I had built the cars, I knew them from the ground-up, so it was just a natural progression for me to get involved as a mechanic,” Hill said. “I ended up going to work for their F3 team, and I just bit the bug from that one. I loved it.

“When you were car building, you basically stayed at home and worked every day at the same place. When you joined the race team, all of a sudden you were in the time crunch part of things. You had to get certain things done in a timely manner. You’d be at the shop for two weeks then go off to a racetrack.”

By 1985, Hill continued the hands-on education in the U.S., working with Mario Andretti’s youngest son, Jeff, in Super Vee. He stayed with Andretti as he moved up to Indy Lights the following year, and by 1990, he secured a job as an Indycar mechanic with Patrick Racing in CART. There, he was chief mechanic for Roberto Guerrero’s Alfa Romeo-powered Lola in the 1991 Indianapolis 500.

When Patrick’s team was sold to Rahal-Hogan in 1991, Hill stayed on board and was part of Bobby Rahal’s championship-winning season in 1992. But despite his success with Rahal, Hill’s lasting legacy in CART came with Chip Gansssi Racing. He joined the Honda team in 1996, where he was crew chief (a.k.a. chief mechanic) for rising star Alex Zanardi.

“As a crew chief, you’re not just responsible for the car, but all the spares and work flow that goes along with it,” Hill said. “You also have to use your skills to make changes to the car to try and make it more reliable and more competitive.”

Robin Hill has been through it all in his 30-plus career in motorsports. (Patron Highcroft Racing)
Doubling as the outside-front tire changer, Hill went through battles of his own, on and off the track. He suffered a near-death experience in 1996 after catching Lyme disease while at a test at Road America. A mere tick bite had damaged his heart, enough so to require a pacemaker. Despite the health scare, he only missed one race that season.

With Hill’s expertise, Zanardi went on to win the 1997 and 1998 CART Championships. And with fast-acting efforts and bare hands, he heroically bent Zanardi’s damaged toe link back into place after a collision in the 1998 Long Beach Grand Prix. The Italian went on to win, in what’s considered one of the most remarkable comebacks in CART’s history.

“The biggest thing I learned over those years was how to make a team work,” Hill said. “You can have ten of the best guys in the world, but if they don’t jell, you’re never going to win. Orchestrating people and managing how they work together is the key. You sometimes have to move people in different directions if they’re known not to work together very well. To me, that’s the biggest challenge in trying to get everyone pulling in the same direction.”

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