Tim Richmond
Tim Richmond was born in Ashland, Ohio, United States on June 7th, 1955 and is the Race Car Driver. At the age of 34, Tim Richmond biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Timothy Lee Richmond (June 7, 1955 – August 13, 1989) was an American race car driver from Ashland, Ohio.
He competed in IndyCar racing before transferring to NASCAR's Winston Cup Series.
Richmond was one of the first drivers to change from open wheel racing to NASCAR stock cars full-time, which later became an industry trend.
He won the 1980 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award and had 13 victories during eight NASCAR seasons. Richmond achieved his top NASCAR season in 1986 when he finished third in points.
He won seven races that season, more than any other driver on the tour.
When he missed the season-opening Daytona 500 in February 1987, media reported that he had pneumonia.
The infection most likely resulted from his compromised immune system, which was weakened by AIDS.
Despite the state of his health, Richmond competed in eight races in 1987, winning two events and one pole position before his final race in August of that year.
He attempted a comeback in 1988 before NASCAR banned him for testing positive for excessive over-the-counter drugs, ibuprofen and pseudoephedrine; NASCAR later announced they gave Richmond a new test and tested negative.
Richmond filed a lawsuit against NASCAR after NASCAR insisted they wanted access to his entire medical record before they would reinstate him.
After losing the lawsuit, Richmond withdrew from racing.
NASCAR later stated their original test was a "bad test."Richmond grew up in a wealthy family and lived a freewheeling lifestyle, earning him the nickname "Hollywood".
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." When Richmond was cast for a bit part in the 1983 movie Stroker Ace, "He fell right in with the group working on the film," said director Hal Needham.
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.
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. 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.
Tim's driving days started as a toddler when he was given a go-kart that he often drove inside buildings and across his lawn. He later raced the kart at tracks in Moreland and New Pittsburg. Richmond grew up in a well-to-do family, and was sometimes therefore treated differently by his classmates, so his parents enrolled him in Miami Military Academy in Miami, Florida. During his years in Miami, Tim and his mother moved to Florida and his father stayed in Ohio. While home in Ohio over a summer break, he met local drag racer Raymond Beadle through lifelong friend Fred Miller. When Richmond reached age 16, his parents purchased him a Pontiac Trans Am, a speedboat and a Piper Cherokee airplane for his birthday. Yet his mother Evelyn often worried about spoiling her only son. She once said, "Tim was lazy...", and "... I did everything for him. I ruined him, I admit it. He was my whole life."
Richmond excelled in sports; he set a conference record in high hurdles and his high school football career was stellar enough that the academy retired his sports jersey after his gridiron days were over. Miami Military Academy named him Athlete of the Year in 1970. Richmond's other interests included flying, and he earned his private pilot license at age 16. Following high school graduation, Richmond attended Ashland University for about one year before dropping out.
Racing career
A friend of Richmond's father co-owned a sprint car, and Richmond joined the team as a crew member for Dave Shoemaker. Richmond's 21-year-old Richmond took the car to Lakeville, Ohio, for some practice laps in 1976. "Somebody put a stopwatch on me," Richmond said. "I was running laps faster than Dave." It was the first time I'd ever raced." A red, white, and blue-colored No. 1 was discovered by Richmond and his father. 98 cars in Pennsylvania, which was the same number and paint scheme that Richmond used on model cars as a child. Officials ranked Richmond in the lowest heat in his first competition at the track. He rode many cars before spinning out and breaking an axle. Despite multiple attempts to get the car to the right location, the broken axle prevented the vehicle from going straight. After being escorted to the pits, he parked the vehicle for the remainder of the performance. They towed the vehicle to Eldora Speedway later this season, only to have Richmond crash the car once more. Richmond's father sacked him as the pilot in response. Al Richmond's son's driving style was enhanced by this SuperModified during the next season. Tim Richmond was both Sandusky Speedway's Rookie of the Year and the SuperModified class track champion in 1977.
Richmond returned to racing sprint cars in the United States Automobile Club's (USAC) national sprint car tour in 1978. He came in 12 races and came in 30th in points as the year's Rookie of the Year. Jim Russell attended Willow Springs International Motorsports Park in 2004, establishing a student course record. Richmond took the Formula Super Vee support event in a Lola T620 in 1978 during a 1978 Mini Indy car race at Phoenix International Raceway. Roger Penske, a major owner, paid attention to the win. He also competed in the USAC's Silver Crown competition.
For the 1979 race at Michigan International Speedway, Richmond's father bought an Eagle Indy Car chassis and an Offenhauser engine. Richmond set a new record on a 175.768.71 km/h) lap, significantly slower than Bobby Unser's 203.879 km/h) pole position speed. On the fourth lap, his engine died, and he came in last (23rd). At the following race at Watkins Glen International, owner Pat Santello was looking for a driver to replace Larry Rice for his CART team, so he gave Richmond a test at Willow Springs Raceway, where he had previously set the student record. Santello recruited Richmond, who then qualified 15th fastest for the event and finished eighth, the highest in his IndyCar career. Richmond competed in three more events this season.
Richmond also tested Kenny Reece's "3-to-one" Supermodified at a 7.5-mile high-speed oval test track in Ohio in 1979. The car was unusual in that it had three wheels on the right side for more control on oval tracks, but only one wheel on the left side of the left side, as well as a faulty aluminum Chevrolet ZL-1 V8 engine. Richmond was able to lap the test track at over 200 miles per hour, but discovered it doing so in a car with no left front wheel. The car was tested, but it was refused before it could be raced.
Richmond set the fastest unofficial training speed of the month in the vain Vibulation of the Chaparral, beating even race favourite Johnny Rutherford in the 1980 Indianapolis 500. On the first day of qualifying, his hopes for the pole were shattered with a crash in morning training. He placed 19th in the run after repairs, placing him 19th in the event. During the competition, he climbed to the top of the top ten, led a lap, and finished ninth after running out of gas at the finish of the race. Rutherford, the crowd's favorite, gave him a ride back to the pits. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1980 in Indianapolis, Indiana. "I busted up a few Indy cars right after that," he said. "Milwaukee, Mid-Ohio." . .. I cut one in two in Michigan. I was worried that my racing career would come to a halt. So when I was invited to drive stock cars, I took it, and it turned out that I loved driving them."
Richmond was persuaded by Pocono Raceway President Joseph Mattioli III to abandon stock car racing on the NASCAR circuit. Richmond made his first NASCAR appearance two months after winning the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award. He debuted in the Coca-Cola 500 at Pocono on July 27, 1980, finishing 12th in a D. K. Ulrich-owned Chevrolet. He competed in five tournaments this season, with two DNFs (did not finish) and three 12th-place finishes. He finished the 1980 season 41st in points.
In 1981, Richmond competed for three teams. He began the season by competing in 15 Ulrich events. He finished in tenth place at Bristol Motor Speedway in his career, followed by a sixth at Talladega and his seventh place finish at Texas World Speedway. Richmond had top-ten finishes at Pocono and Bristol after Kennie Childers took him away from Ulrich mid-season. He drove for Bob Rogers in the final seven races of the season and finished at No. 10 at Dover International Speedway, capturing a top-ten finish. Richmond had six top ten finishes to finish 16th in season points on the season.
Billie Harvey, Mike Lovern's Fast Company Limited, started riding for Richmond beginning 1982 without a ride before being given a one-race ticket to drive for Mike Lovern's Fast Company Limited at the Rockingham track. Richmond finished 31st after 112 laps of the 492-lap event, with engine issues. Richmond was hired to drive J.D. for the following occasions. The No. 1 in Stacy is an acronym that stands for "No. Two cars. Richmond finished fifth at Darlington Raceway in his first season with the team, earning his first top-five finish. He came back to Pocono, finishing second in his first run on the road course at Riverside, California, the following week. He earned his first pole position at Bristol later this season. The tour returned to Riverside for the final race of the season, where Richmond claimed his second title in his second run, sweeping both categories at the same time. "Watching Richmond go through the Esses was amazing," Benny Parsons said. Richmond had 12 top tens, two victories, and one pole, finishing 26th in points for the season.
Raymond Beadle, who had no idea he was racing before he began racing, began racing in 1983. He won his first oval race on a three-cornered Pocono course. He had four pole positions (Darlington, Pocono, Charlotte, and Atlanta), one win (Pocono), and fifteen top ten positions on his way to finish tenth in season points. He made his first appearance in a NASCAR Busch Series car, but he did not finish any of the three races he entered that season.
In 1984, Esquire magazine named Richmond as one of "the best of the new generation." He won one race at North Wilkesboro Speedway and second-place finishes at Dover, Darlington, and Riverside that year. Richmond placed 12th in points in the 1984 season, with 11 finishes in the top ten and six in the top 5, with 11 finishes in the top ten and six in the top 5. Richmond's best finish in 1985, the last year he competed for Beadle, was a second-place run at Bristol. With 13 Top 10s in 28 races, he finished the season 11th in points. Barry Dodson, a newcomer who defeated Rusty Wallace in 1989, was his crew chief for the season. He started and finished in the Busch Series at pole position in the two races he entered and won the Charlotte race, earning the pole position.
Richmond joined Hendrick Motorsports in 1986, where he worked with veteran crew chief Harry Hyde. The team didn't know how to gel until the middle of the season. Richmond had a 64-race winless streak that was eventually snapped at the Van Scoy Diamond Mine 500 in Pocono in June 1986. Richmond, which earned third place in the Pocono event after two straight second-place finishes at Charlotte and Riverside, opened the Pocono event in third place within the second row. With five laps remaining before the halfway point, there was a warning of rain. NASCAR wanted the cars to make the race official, so the sanctioning body had the drivers slowly circle the track. The laps took the drivers 26 minutes, and some drivers had to look out their side windows because they couldn't see out their windshields. With Richmond in third, the track had dried two hours later and the race had resumed with Richmond in third place. The car was more to his liking after Richmond's engine was modified to eliminate the "push." Since his radio did not work, he was unable to connect with his crew leader, Hyde, and he had to stop for his final pit stop with 37 laps left. Hyde was worried that Richmond had started a lap too early to ensure he'd have enough fuel to make it to the end. Dale Earnhardt took the lead after Richmond took the lead with 30 laps remaining in the season with a time to spare, but Richmond took the lead after Richmond took the lead in the five-second time. Buddy Arrington spun in a three-car accident with four laps remaining. The remaining laps of the race were run slowly under caution, with Richmond taking the checkered flag for the triumph. He had led 97 laps, including the final 30, winning his first match in a Rick Hendrick vehicle.
A month after the tour returned to Pocono, Richmond fought for another victory in a fog-shortened tournament. Richmond defeated Geoff Bodine and Ricky Rudd in a three-car battle in the final 8-lap sprint. Richmond crossed the finish line alongside Rudd, winning the race by 0.05 seconds. He won four more races this season, and over a span of twelve races, Richmond has earned three second-place finishes, and six wins. After Richmond earned 13 top-five finishes and 16 in the top 10, the National Motorsport Press Association named him Co-Driver of the Year with Earnhardt. After winning seven events in 1986 in what was his last complete NASCAR season, he had a career-best third-place finish in points.
Motorsports career results
(Bold) (Bold – pole position awarded by qualifying time) (Bold – BOLD) : The key (key) Italics – pole position earned by points standings or practice time. (Most laps led): (Really long laps led))
(key) (Key) (races in bold indicate pole position) (key)