Tim Richmond

Timothy Lee Richmond (June 7, 1955 – August 13, 1989) was an American

Richmond grew up in a wealthy family and lived a freewheeling lifestyle, earning him the nickname "Hollywood".[6] In describing Richmond's influence in racing, Charlotte Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler said, "We've never had a race driver like Tim in stock car racing. He was almost a James Dean-like character."^[6] When Richmond was cast for a bit part in the 1983 movie Stroker Ace,^[6] "He fell right in with the group working on the film," said director Hal Needham.^[6] Cole Trickle, the main character in the movie Days of Thunder, played by Tom Cruise, was loosely based on Richmond and his interaction with Harry Hyde and Rick Hendrick.^[7]

Early life

Richmond grew up in Ashland, Ohio. His parents, Al and Evelyn (née Warner) Richmond, met in the course of their work. Al was a welder for pipe construction companies and Evelyn was a field office manager.^[8] Noticing that highway crews had to dig up the entire highway to lay pipe, Al designed a machine to bore underneath the highway. To market this invention, he founded Richmond Manufacturing, which eventually exported machines worldwide.^[8]

Tim's driving days started as a toddler when he was given a

Also in 1979, Richmond tested Kenny Reece's unusual "3-to-1" Supermodified at a 7.5-mile high-speed oval test track in Ohio.^[11] The car was unique in that it featured 3 wheels on the right side for added grip on oval tracks, but only 1 wheel on the center of the left side, along with a left-offset aluminum Chevrolet ZL-1 V8 engine. Richmond was able to lap the test track at over 200 MPH, but found doing so in a car with no left front wheel slightly unnerving.^[12] The car was tested, but outlawed before it could actually be raced.

During practice for the 1980 Indianapolis 500, Richmond set the fastest unofficial practice speed of the month, besting even race favorite Johnny Rutherford in the vaunted Chaparral. His hopes for the pole were dashed with a crash in morning practice on the first day of qualifying. After repairs he qualified 19th for the race.^[4] He worked his way up to the top 10 during the race, led a lap, and finished ninth as he ran out of fuel at the end of the race.^[4] To the delight of the crowd, winner Rutherford gave him a ride back to the pits.^[4] He was named the 1980 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. "I busted up a few Indy cars right after that," he said. "Milwaukee, Mid-Ohio. . . at Michigan I cut one in two. I was afraid my racing career would come to a halt. So when I got an offer to drive stock cars, I took it, and it turned out I liked driving them better."^[10]

NASCAR

Richmond started 1982 without a ride before getting a one-race deal to drive for Mike Lovern's Fast Company Limited,

Esquire magazine named Richmond as one of "the best of the new generation" in 1984.^[9] That year he had one win at North Wilkesboro Speedway and second-place finishes at Dover, Darlington and Riverside.^[18] Richmond finished the 1984 season 12th in points, with 11 finishes in the top 10 and in six in the top 5.^[3] In 1985, the final season that Richmond competed for Beadle,^[2] his best finish was a second-place run at Bristol. He ended the season 11th in points with 13 Top 10s in 28 races.^[3] His crew chief for the season was newcomer Barry Dodson who won the 1989 championship with Rusty Wallace.^[19] In the Busch Series, he qualified at the pole position in the two races he entered, and won the Charlotte race.^[17]

Richmond joined

The tour returned to Pocono a month later, and Richmond battled for another victory in a fog-shortened event. In the final 8-lap sprint, Richmond competed in a three-car battle with Geoff Bodine and Ricky Rudd. Richmond crossed the finish line beside Rudd, winning the race by 0.05 seconds.^[4] He notched four more victories that season, and over a span of twelve races, Richmond earned three second-place finishes, and six wins.^[20] The National Motorsports Press Association named him Co-Driver of the Year with Earnhardt after Richmond accumulated 13 top 5 finishes and 16 in the top 10.^[9] He had a career-best third-place finish in points after winning seven events in 1986, in what was his last full NASCAR season.^[3]

Illness and death

Richmond fell ill the day after the 1986 NASCAR annual banquet during a promotional trip to

Richmond withdrew into his condo in Florida. There were by then rumors of HIV and AIDS, which he denied.[23] He was later hospitalized in West Palm Beach.^[5][25]

ESPN sent a get-well-soon card to Richmond when it aired the July 1989 NASCAR race at Pocono.^[26] The television network showed highlights of Richmond's victory at the track from 1986. "Tim had Hollywood good looks and the charisma of Tom Cruise," said his friend Dr. Jerry Punch. "There he was in victory lane with the team all around him and beauty queens hanging all over him. It was important for the people at the hospital to see Tim the way he really was, when he was healthy and handsome and vital, not the way he was as they saw him every day in the hospital."^[26]

On August 13, 1989, Richmond died at the age of 34,^[25] about two years after his final NASCAR race.^[4][24][27] He was buried in Ashland, Ohio.^[6]

The secrecy surrounding the circumstance of his death caused speculation for several days.^[28] At the time, Punch stated that Richmond had been hospitalized due to a motorcycle accident,^[24] though it is unlikely that Richmond had the strength to ride a motorcycle during his last months. Ten days after his death, on August 23, the Richmond family held a press conference to reveal that Richmond died from complications from AIDS, which he acquired from an unknown woman.^[23][28] Richmond's physician, Dr. David Dodson, said: "There's no way of knowing who that woman was. Tim was a celebrity with a lot of charisma, a handsome guy. He naturally attracted a lot of women."^[28] Punch later claimed that more than 90 drivers and personnel underwent HIV testing in the wake of Richmond's death.^[23]

Legacy

In 1990, a few months after Richmond's death, Washington television station WJLA-TV and reporter Roberta Baskin reported that Dr. Forest Tennant, who was then the National Football League's drug adviser, "falsified drug tests" that ultimately helped shorten Richmond's NASCAR career. Baskin reported that sealed court documents and interviews showed Tennant and NASCAR used "allegedly false drug-test results in 1988 to bar Richmond from racing". Baskin also stated that NASCAR had targeted Richmond, requesting that Tennant establish a substance-abuse policy with Richmond in mind. A series of drug tests and falsely reported positive results shortly before the 1988 Daytona 500 kept Richmond from driving in what was to have been his last big race...", the report said. The New York Times published the findings. While neither Tennant nor NASCAR supplied an official response at the time, NASCAR did confirm that they were seeking to replace Tennant.^[29]

The Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame inducted Richmond in their second class in 1996. In 1998, NASCAR named Richmond one of its 50 greatest drivers of all time.

The documentary film Tim Richmond: To The Limit was produced as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series with a premiere date of October 19, 2010.^[32]

In 2018, Dalton Sargeant drove the No. 25 truck for GMS Racing in honor of Richmond.^[33]

From 2019 to 2022, an ARCA Menards Series driver who shares the same name and is also coincidentally related to Tim very distantly through his father Dave, ran identical paint schemes with his cars to Richmond's No. 25 when he drove for Hendrick Motorsports.

In June 2019 current Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman announced in the Darlington Throwback Race he would run a Tim Richmond throwback to the No. 25 Folgers car.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

Daytona 500

Busch Series

American open wheel

CART Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

USAC Champ Car series

Indianapolis 500 results

References

Further reading

• Poole, David. Tim Richmond: The Fast Life and Remarkable Times of NASCAR's Top Gun Champaign, IL: Sports Publications, 2005.
  ISBN 978-1-58261-833-3

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tim Richmond.

• Tim Richmond driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Tim Richmond at
  IMDb
• Tim Richmond at Find a Grave

Sporting positions
Preceded by Howdy Holmes	Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year 1980	Succeeded by Josele Garza