Tim Richmond Remembered
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As I fire this one up another time, I’m still not
certain exactly when it will run, only that it will be appropriate. There are a
couple of choices, and each is worthy of this now epic work. It’s difficult to
realize it’s been 30 years since we’ve seen that beautiful beaming smile that was
a trademark of Tim Richmond.
Today,
gentle readers, we're going on a journey... a journey backward through time to
another era… an era when things in the world of racing and indeed the world
itself, were very different. The story I'll be sharing with you is one that
becomes more difficult to relate with each attempt. Time is said to heal all
wounds, but each time we revisit this one, it only pains me more as the gross
injustice of it all once again rises to the top and boils over in hot, angry
tears.
What
follows here is not all new, but then, history, if accurate, knows no change.
Certainly, much has been added over the years as more was learned and more
admitted. In the following paragraphs, you'll read of the birth of NASCAR's
"famous" Substance Abuse Policy and how it was instituted for the
sole purpose of bringing down a single man that dared to get sick while holding
a NASCAR license. It is the story of the rise and fall, and oh, what a fall it
proved to be, of one of the best racers NASCAR has ever seen. Some feel he was
the best, but that point will be forever moot, as this racer died far too young
to prove or disprove its validity. He died, gentle readers, 30 years ago,
August 13, 1989… so long ago now that many of you reading today were not yet
born then. Racers and race fans, I give you, Tim Richmond...
Ashland County Ohio Hall of Fame
Tim Richmond was a NOVA: a star that burns for a short
time with an intense light. When extinguished it leaves the world a darker
place for it having been there.
Unlike most NASCAR Cup drivers, who get rich by
driving a car and winning races, Tim was born into the lap of luxury, never
wanting for anything and pretty much having everything his own way. Prep school, fast cars, fast bikes and fast
women were his lifestyle. Movie stars and musicians were his friends.
This astonishingly good-looking young man never saw
the seat of an actual racecar until he was 21 years old, and then it was not a
stock car, but an open wheel Sprint car, belonging to a friend. It was love at first drive, as it were, and
Tim had found his avocation.
Winner Johnny Rutherford gives
Tim a ride
IMS Photo
He spent a few years racing Sprints and in 1980 raced
the Indianapolis 500 where he finished ninth and was voted rookie of the race.
After that year, feeling there were still worlds to conquer and dragons to be
slain, he moved on to the stock cars of Winston Cup. Later, in explaining the difference between
the two, he would state that one "drove" an Indy car, but
"raced" a stock car, and race them he did, almost as if his life
depended upon speed.
To say that Tim was different from those good ol'
southern drivers of that time would be akin to saying that a cat is not quite a
dog. Surrounded by gruff, tough
characters like Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough, Tim stood
out like a peacock in a flock of crows.
His expensive tastes in clothing, food and drink, not to mention ladies,
set him quite apart from the norm, but the lad could drive!
He was not, however, an overnight success, driving one
race at Pocono in 1980, for D.K. Ulrich, and spending 1981 driving a series of
catch rides for several different car owners, only to face the 1982 season with
no ride at all. That was cured when J.D.
Stacy had a falling out with his driver, Joe Ruttman,
and came looking for Tim's services. Tim would win two races in that year, both
at the old Riverside road course in California, and managed to finish 26th in
points, with 7 top five and 12 top ten finishes, although he only ran 26 races.
In 1983, he accepted what would become a three- year
stint with the new "Blue Max" team, owned by drag racing great,
Raymond Beadle, with Barry Dodson as crew chief. Tim and Barry became the best of friends
during that time, and together they shared 2 wins, 18 top-five and 34 top-ten
finishes, along with placing 10th in the points in 1983, 12th in 1984 and 11th
in 1985.
About this time, enter Rick Hendrick, who saw a world
of potential in the flamboyant young driver with that proverbial fire in his
belly to win races. Rick created a brand-new
team, ostensibly belonging to his father, "Papa Joe." (It was some
silly rule about multi-car teams, which has obviously gone by the wayside)
He built the #25 team around Tim, and especially for
him, with Folgers Coffee as the sponsor, and the irascible Harry Hyde as crew
chief. If you've ever watched "Days
of Thunder", the Harry Hogg character was patterned…loosely… after
Hyde. There was a lot of Timmy in that
Cole Trickle character, but one could also see a lot of Dale Earnhardt, and
when it came to racing the two were not so very
different.
Harry and Tim ~ Charlotte 1986
What a shame that the new team got off to such a slow
start in 1986, because before it was over, Tim would win 7 races, including
both races at his beloved Pocono Raceway, and sit on 8 poles. No other driver fared as well, but a couple
of mechanical failures late in the year dropped him to third in the points,
behind a winning Dale Earnhardt and 6 points behind Darrell Waltrip. True to his style, Timmy had anticipated
winning that trophy so much that he'd had a special tuxedo custom tailored for
the occasion, along with a black and white checkered silk shirt. Although Tim never got to wear that tux as
the champion, his dear friend Barry would wear it at the awards banquet in
1989, as crew chief for then Champion Rusty Wallace.
It seemed to the casual observer that 1986 was a
banner year for Tim Richmond, with all the wins, the near championship and his
announcement about mid-year that he had proposed to a young lady and was
awaiting her decision. (You could almost hear the collective sigh of a million
or more brokenhearted gals at the thought of this handsome young devil being
taken off the market) The casual
observer was wrong! The engagement, much
like the Championship, never materialized, and immediately after the end of the
season, Tim presented himself, under a false name, at the Cleveland Clinic, to
be diagnosed with auto-immune deficiency syndrome, better known as AIDS.
Over the fall of 1986 he had been noticeably ill, to
the point of greatly concerning Harry Hyde, but Tim brushed it off as flu and
indeed, seemed to recover for a while, only to be quite ill again by the last
two races, and reportedly looked far from healthy at the awards banquet. He
spent much of that winter in a hospital, and then recuperated at a Florida
beach house, while we were being told he was suffering from double pneumonia
and exhaustion.
One has to remember that at this time in our history
the HIV virus and the ensuing terminal disease known as AIDS were barely
beginning to be understood. It fell to Tim's mother, Evelyn Richmond, to call
Rick Hendrick and explain to him what the disease was, and what it would mean
in the end. Hendrick was crushed and
heartbroken as the full import was brought home to him and he knew he would
lose his protégé and friend. Tim, on the
other hand, was not easily done in, and continued to recover as he worked out
to regain his strength for a comeback.
After an ill-fated outing at Rockingham in early
spring of 1987, he retired once more to work harder on himself. When he finally returned to race a full 500
miles, it was at Pocono. Of course! In true Tim Richmond style, he won the race,
and I'm very sure that Victory Lane still bears the stain of all the tears he
shed that day. The next race was at Riverside, and Tim won that one too, with a
sad but cheering Barry Dodson sitting on a hillside, watching his friend win
his last race ever.
1987 ~ Pocono
By the time Michigan rolled around in August, Tim had
to be driven from his truck to the car.
Sorry, I don't recall the
results of that race, but shortly thereafter Tim checked himself back into
the Cleveland Clinic. Les Richter, then director of competition for NASCAR,
phoned Rick Hendrick to inform him that his driver appeared to be in no shape
to take to the track. It would be in September, after an announced comeback at
the Southern 500 that never materialized, that Tim resigned from Hendrick
Motorsports, to free the team to hire a new driver.
Now, while all this was going on, things in the garage
area did not remain quiet. Anyone who follows
this sport knows about the "rumor mill", which can help or harm, cure
or kill, with equal abandon, and it was in full swing! The mention of AIDS, or the possibility
thereof had gotten out, and spread like a grassfire in a drought. Along with it, speculation generated more
rumors, dealing with how the disease had been contracted. Some laid it to promiscuity, which it
probably was, while others hinted at other causes, but by far the most damning
were the rumors of drug involvement. To my knowledge, no one, to this day, has
ever claimed to have seen Tim doing drugs or even talking about it, but that is
the one that persisted, perhaps because its fire was fueled and fanned by no
less a personage than “King” Richard Petty.
I was never sure what his problem with Tim might have been, but on more
than one occasion he launched into some quite vitriolic speech for the benefit
of the press and thereby, the fans.
When the Busch Clash, the first race of 1988 rolled
around, Tim was eligible and wanted to drive it. It was then that NASCAR came
up with one of those "on the spot" rules, supposedly instituting a
drug testing policy, but somehow it only applied to Tim. Having anticipated this, Tim had stopped
taking his medication some 6 weeks before. Just prior to going to Daytona, he
had his own doctor run a drug screen (which was entirely clean) and seal away
the results. When he arrived at the
track, he requested that the test be run immediately, which was done. It was announced a couple of days later that
Richmond was suspended from racing indefinitely for testing positive for banned
substances.
He immediately requested and got a meeting with
Richter, where he vehemently pointed out that a mistake had been made, and
demanded another test, which was done.
The second test was negative, but of course, the results of the first
test had been given to the world. NASCAR
would later admit that the only substances found in the first test were common
cold remedies that most of us have taken, Sudafed and Advil! There never had
been drugs or banned substances.
It was all a mistake. Eyewash! It was a carefully conceived plan on the part
of NASCAR officials from Bill France Jr. on down, to discredit this man, who
dared to come down with an unpopular disease on their watch. Even back then, it
was all about the corporate image.
Eventually, they had to lift his suspension, but still refused to let
him drive without surrendering his medical records from the Cleveland Clinic,
which would have proved he had AIDS. So
feared was this disease then, he refused, preferring to take the secret to his
grave rather than own up to it. One thing he did do, being Tim Richmond, was
hire a small plane to fly over Daytona on race day, trailing a banner that read
"Fans, I Miss You-Tim Richmond" We missed him too!
Later that year, Tim filed suit against NASCAR for
defamation of character relating to the drug test and the false information
released. NASCAR countered by demanding reams of information: Richmond's tax
returns from 1980-87; the results of every test of his urine, blood or other
bodily fluids since 1980; records of every visit to a doctor, psychologist or
counselor since 1980; and his medical records from the Cleveland Clinic and his
personal doctor in Florida. These boys know how to fight! By fall, the lawsuit was withdrawn, once more
to avoid disclosing his medical records.
Rick Hendrick probably summed up all that happened in the best way.
"That's horrible to damage someone like that - to character assassinate
without the facts."
Tim retired to seclusion in West Palm Beach, Florida,
where he remained, with his mother, until his death on August 13, 1989. In all those months, there were very few
visitors from the "family" of NASCAR.
Rick Hendrick remained close to Tim, as did Barry Dodson, but the vast
majority of drivers were conspicuous in their absence, probably due to a
combination of fear of the disease and fear of retribution from NASCAR. Kyle Petty offered this statement as a
summation:
"It all boils down to AIDS. I don’t care what
anybody tells you. Nobody knows how to handle AIDS, especially in a sport as
backward-thinking on so many things as this sport is."
For my part, I was heartbroken. This bright star went out far too early, and
the hierarchy of the sport I love reacted in a manner unacceptable in the
mangiest of feral hounds. As I write
this, I am looking at a small blue frame, decorated with a bow in one corner,
containing the words of a poem someone sent to Grand National Scene after Tim's
death. It reads:
God saw
you getting tired
And the
cure was not to be,
So he
put His arms around you
And
whispered, "Come to Me."
It broke
our hearts to lose you
But you
did not go alone,
For part
of us went with you
The day
God called you home.
We love
you Tim
In front of the poem there is a 1/64 diecast of the
#25 Folgers car. That's all that remains
in my life of Timmy now, except for the fact that I find it still makes the
tears flow to remember all of this.
Before we close today, let me share just one more thought, gentle
reader. There is a very old country song
whose lyrics I've always thought could have been written just for Tim Richmond.
"I
Want to Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young and Leave a Beautiful Memory."
What was not made public at the time, but came to
light later, was that the first drug test performed on Tim was at the hands of
Dr. Forrest Tennant, not a regular NASCAR doctor, but one in the employ of the
NFL, brought in by Les Richter, member of the NFL Hall of Fame… and recently
"unnominated" for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The following tiny
notation appeared on page 2 of the Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1990, six
months after the death of Tim Richmond.
"Tennant
No Longer NASCAR's Drug Adviser"
"Dr.
Forest Tennant is no longer working for NASCAR as its drug adviser, a spokesman
for the premier stock car sanctioning body said Thursday in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Tennant
is the executive director of Community Health Projects, Inc., a group of
drug-treatment clinics headquartered in West Covina.
He has
come under fire for his work as a consultant to the NFL, and it was reported
this week by The Times and WJLA-TV in Washington that the result of a drug test
he administered to Tim Richmond was falsified. Richmond, a former Winston Cup
driver, died of AIDS last August."
And that, gentle readers, is how NASCAR's substance
abuse policy was born, and why your scribe has always harbored ill-feelings for
it. Anything that can be so twisted and manipulated to harm, degrade and defame
a man guilty of absolutely nothing, is not to my mind a good thing, and a pox
on all those responsible for doing so.
IF… and it’s a big IF, Tim hadn’t been made to feel so
ashamed of the disease he'd contracted that he went off his meds for 6 weeks
before taking a drug test, it's quite possible he might still be alive today.
In doing that, he let his immune system sink to zero defense, and never
recovered. Today, many folks with AIDS are living long lives, not without worry
and complications to be sure, but living. If his dignity had been left intact
by the hierarchy of NASCAR, he well might be too, and THAT is the saddest part
of the story.
Please note, this was not done by "NASCAR."
That is merely a corporate acronym. No… This was done by human beings… and you…
those of you still living... each know who you are. How do you sleep at night?
Rest in Peace Tim Richmond ~
Truth Shall Prevail
Choosing songs to serve as a Classic Country Closeout
for this tribute to Tim wasn't an easy task, not because there are none, but
because so many came to mind. Those I've chosen are not all from the strictly
"Classic" genre, but the ones that I feel impart best what feelings I
hope you'll take away with you today.
The first, a true Classic, is the song that became Red
Foley's theme song and most recognized of all he ever recorded. Please enjoy "Peace in the Valley" and
think of Tim Richmond as you listen to the words.
And the last is one that will need no explanation.
Just close your eyes and let Diamond Rio take you wherever the road leads as
you listen to "One More Day",
then open your eyes and read along as overlaying the music are the words to a
poem called, "The Last Time."
Be well gentle readers and smile if you can. Thirty
years and this still brings tears. Once more, I ask… How do you sleep at night?
~PattyKay 