We have all seen or heard of Hollywood’s interpretation of NASCAR racing, the aptly named; Days of Thunder. Starring Tom Cruise, it portrays a young American open-wheel driver by the name of Cole Trickle, who has lost his drive and endeavours to ‘Make It Big’ in America’s most popular series. Whilst the story line seems a little far-fetched and overall quite boilerplate, it is in actual fact, loosely based on the career of the hugely talented driver, Tim Richmond, Crew Chief Harry Hyde and Team Owner Rick Hendrick.

Tim was brought up in surroundings with ample wealth; his father Al Richmond, being the owner of a successful machinery business. He did race sporadically in a kart that was given to him by his family in the local area, however it was never seen at the time as a future career path. Tim was more interested in American football and High Jump, setting conference records in each with his school even going to extent of ‘retiring’ his jersey number. Nevertheless, the passion for all-things mechanical still burned within him. Whilst most sixteen year old’s are longing for any set of wheels to open the doors of freedom, Tim was given a Pontiac Trans-Am road car, a speedboat and a Piper Cherokee light plane.

It wasn’t until the age of twenty-one that Tim received his first taste of a real race car. In 1976, Father Al had a friend who co-owned a local sprint car team, who opened up an opportunity to the ‘green driver’ to drive some laps in unfamiliar machinery. That day at Lakeville Speedway in Ohio, Tim ran faster than the the car had ever run before at the circuit, even against it’s current driver. Obviously impressed with his son’s talent, Al purchased a sprint car for Tim, to begin his professional driving career. Initially, mechanical issues and accidents hampered Tim’s race meets, however a move to a “Super Modified” dirt-track car proved to be beneficial in suiting his driving style by taking the 1977 Sandusky’s Speedway “Rookie of the Year” crown. A switch to open-wheeler racing in 1978 saw heads turn as Tim blew the field away in a Formula Super-Vee race, which was supporting the USAC (Indycar) round at Phoenix. Eager to climb the category ladder in 1979, an Eagle Indycar and Offenhauser turbo-charged motor were purchased by Al, in order to enter Tim into North America’s top-flight open-wheeler series. Other than taking the “Rookie of the Year” trophy at the Indianapolis 500 in 1980, Tim’s USAC career was marred by accidents to the extent of his mother ‘banning’ him from racing again.

Undaunted, Tim was looking to NASCAR to fulfil his ambition of becoming a successful driver. “I busted up a few Indy cars” 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.” It took thirty four races before Tim secured his first NASCAR race win, at the Riverside road course, which was to be expected due to the lack of quality machinery at his disposal. No doubt his Indycar background helped him to excel on the non-oval race tracks. 1983 proved Tim could hold his own on oval courses, by taking his first victory at the Pocono 500 with his new team, Raymond Beadle Racing. Between the end of the 1983 and 1985 seasons, Tim only scored one win in which he endured a sixty-four race winless streak. However, all was not lost, with the legendary team owner, Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports, taking on Tim to compete during the 1986 season – it would prove to be the most successful season of his career. Seven wins from twenty-nine starts ensured that the title would be fought down to the wire with Dale Earnhardt Snr. Harry Hyde (sounds familiar to Harry Hogg, doesn’t it?), Tim’s crew chief at Hendrick spoke of how much he enjoyed racing Dale: “He just enjoyed the hell out of racing Earnhardt. He’d pull up under Earnhardt and just sit there, lap after lap, they’re side by side. He’d come on the radio and say…

“`That’s all it’ll do. I can’t go any faster.’

“And I’d say, `Well, are you in a bind sitting there?’

“He says, `No.’

“I says, `How long can you stay there?’

“He says, `All day.'”

Eventually, Richmond placed third in the 1986 championship, trailing seasoned NASCAR campaigners Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Snr. It would be his last full season in any form of motorsport, let-alone NASCAR.

1987 would prove to be the hardest of Tim’s career. Over the season break, he was hospitalised for months with what doctors described as ‘double pneumonia’. When Richmond missed the Daytona 500, the rumors flew. Some said cocaine addiction, others said HIV/AIDS. Kyle Petty didn’t believe them any more than he believed Richmond had pneumonia, he thought it was cancer. Richard Petty, stock-car racing’s King, felt then and now it was drugs. “There’s a question in my mind about drugs – that at the time he was driving that race car, he was pumped up.” Richmond’s return to racing in spring 1987 triggered a media frenzy, Hyde scheduled a secret test at Darlington to see whether Richmond was physically able to come back. Word somehow leaked out and reporters showed up with stop watches, so Hyde slipped four left-side tires (staggered special) on to give the car an added edge. As a result, he instantly produced competitive times. Still noticeably ill, Tim returned to the cockpit at the Pocono 500, the scene of his first oval-track win. The race was not without drama, during the race the gearbox jammed into fourth gear (the highest gear in a NASCAR gearbox) which made it very difficult to get the right amount drive out of Pocono’s unusually tight corners, let alone from his pit-box. Regardless, Tim lead the race for 82 laps and beat second place driver, Bill Elliott, by over eight car lengths. Richmond was emotional after the victory, saying, “I had tears in my eyes when I took the checkered flag. Then every time anyone congratulated me, I started bawling again.” His second and final victory of the season was at the road-course race at Riverside where he dominated the race from Ricky Rudd. From the eight races Tim had entered that year, he won two, placed in the top-ten four times and retired in the other two due to mechanical issues.

Little did anyone know, Tim had been officially diagnosed with AIDS in 1986. NASCAR had developed its first drug-testing policy, which Richmond felt was designed with him in mind. Determined to continue racing, he stopped taking his AIDS medication, AZT, six weeks earlier so it wouldn’t be detected. He also asked his doctor to give him a drug test to make sure he was clean. He sealed the sample in a safe deposit box in Daytona Beach Shores. He knew he was clean when he signed NASCAR’s drug-testing consent form in the Daytona garage area, so he asked to take the test right then. Two days later, NASCAR announced Richmond was suspended indefinitely for testing positive for substances on its list of banned drugs. The substances identified were Advil and Sudafed, both over the counter drugs for cold and flu relief. Tim sued NASCAR for the suspension, which was eventually settled out of court. To his final days, Tim had always denied publicly that he abused drugs in any form.

Tim’s condition persisted to get worse, without the truth revealed to the public. He was admitted to a private hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida to try and stem the tide of the incureable disease. At the foot of his bed was a table that was draped in his helmet and race suit. Tim truly believed that he would one day return to the track as a competitor. The sports television network that broadcasted NASCAR at the time, ESPN, sent Tim a ‘get well soon’ card as well as showing a highlight reel of his career. “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.” Dr Punch would go onto becoming an advisor for the movie.

On August 13, 1989, Tim succumbed to his illness and passed away at the hospital, aged thirty four. Secrecy about the cause of death caused multiple conspiracy theories to develop until ten days later when the Richmond family held a press conference to bring to light the truth. 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.”

Tim lived his life to the utmost full. He was regularly creating headlines for various rendezvous with multiple beautiful women, there was no hiding this. However, he lived more in thirty four years of life than many do in one hundred. The motorcycle riding, party animal was adored and loathed by fans and officials alike, but no-one could argue he was one of the last true personalities of the sport. Hyde, summed up the man perfectly. “Richmond never won a Winston cup championship, but had a tuxedo custom-made for the occasion, with a silk shirt patterned like a checkered flag. He pictured his race team riding up the East Coast from Florida on a cigarette boat to collect its trophy. He even charted the course to a dock on Long Island where they’d hop into a limousine for the ride to New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. He was going to start at the top and go from there. He wasn’t going to wait for anybody else to decide the course he took. He was going to decide himself.”

The sport misses great characters like Tim.