Timothy Lee Richmond was born in Ashland, Ohio, the only son of Al and Evelyn Richmond, wealthy parents who allowed their son to want for nothing. A prime example of this is for his sixteenth birthday Tim was given a Pontiac Trans Am, a speedboat and a Piper Cherokee aeroplane (he had his private pilot licence at sixteen).

Tim Richmond

Tim’s love of driving started at a very early age when he was given a go-kart as a toddler that he drove around the garden. Tim spent his school years at the Miami Military Academy in Florida and it was here that his competitiveness really came to the fore in that he excelled in sports, gaining a record for the high hurdles, prominence in the high school football team and achieving "Athlete of the Year" in 1970.

It wasn’t until he dropped out of College that his real interest in racing began. After working and showing no interest in his father’s company his father got him a job as a crew member for Dave Shoemaker and in 1976 Tim took the sprint car on to the Lakeville Speedway in Ohio for some practice laps not knowing that somebody was timing him. "I was running laps faster than Dave had been. It was the first time I had driven a race car". He recalled. He was hooked! His father bought him a car so that he could race on the sprint track at Mercer, Pennsylvania where he crashed it. Father and son took the car home, repaired it and later towed the car to Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio. Tim crashed the car again! This time his father bought him a SuperModified car better suited to his sons’ style of driving and in 1977 Tim became the Sandusky Speedway’s "Rookie of the Year" and the SuperModified class track champion.

He had some success in his IndyCar career but he also crashed quite a few cars and when he got an offer to drive stock cars, he took it and found that he preferred driving these. His first race on the NASCAR racing circuit was at the Pocono Raceway, he debuted in the Coca-Cola 500 on the 27th July 1980 where he finished in 12th position.

His career went from strength to strength in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, giving him thirteen wins, seventy eight Top Tens and fourteen pole positions, competing in 185 races over an eight year period.

Tim’s life style off the track was equally lived in the fast lane, having an eye for women and the life and soul of the NASCAR party scene; he was charismatic, funny, handsome and charming. Nicknamed "Hollywood" because he wore expensive, stylish clothes and lived the high-life but unfortunately that life style caught up with him.

In 1986, after the annual NASCAR racing banquet he became ill and was not well enough to race in the first half of the 1987 season despite taking time off and being hospitalised. He returned to Pocono for the Miller Lite 500, starting in third position he took the lead by the fifth lap and led for eighty two laps including the final forty six giving him the victory despite having gear box problems. Tim went on to victory again in the next race at Riverside.

His final race start was at Michigan International Speedway in the Champion Spark Plug 400 in August that year but he finished in 29th position after blowing his engine. He resigned from Hendrick Motorsports in September 1987. Tragically, Tim died from AIDS at the West Palm Beach hospital on the 13th August 1989 after a three year battle with the deadly disease. He was buried in his home town, Ashland, Ohio. As the inspiration for the movie, Days of Thunder, Tim earned the nickname Hollywood Tim because he wanted to become an actor, a bug that bit him during a cameo appearance in the movie, Stroker Ace with Burt Reynolds but Richmond became most legendary for his rapid rise and terrible fall in NASCAR racing.

He was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers and was an Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002. "Life was a party for him, and he wanted everybody to have a good time. I don’t think there is a damn thing wrong with that." A quote from Harold Elliott.

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