It was August 13, 1989 when NASCAR driver Tim Richmond died.
For weeks and even months there had been all kind of rumors and speculation about Richmond being sick and what that sickness was. Many said no, no way, when the disease was mentioned. That just didn’t happen in NASCAR circles.
In 1987 he missed the Daytona 500 because of double pneumonia so the press was told. Not long after Richmond left Hendrick Motor Sports was when the real rumors started to kick in about Richmond leading a double life and somehow picking up the dreaded, as it was called then, “gay plague”. “No it can’t be true after all NASCAR drivers are not ….”.
According to an article written by Ed Hinton for ESPN 20 years after Richmond died, Richmond’s family weeks after Richmond had been buried held a news conference in which they confirmed the rumors. Tim Richmond had died of AIDS.
Hinton wrote that at least one in the NASCAR circle, and a broadcaster and doctor at that, knew the truth or at least as much as Richmond was willing to devulge. He confined in Dr. Gerry Punch that he had AIDS.
Punch was then left with the unenviable task of telling, according to Hinton, more than 90 people in the NASCAR circle to get tested for AIDS. You could almost see and hear them standing around the haulers, calculating: “Now she was with Richmond, I know … and then she was with [fill in the blank]. And then he was with [fill in another blank.] And then she was with me — uh — Hey, Doc! I need to ask you about something.”, Hinton wrote.
It’s speculated that Richmond caught the disease sometime in 1986. But as in most if not all cases of those who contract AIDS, a timeline is at best a guess. And because no one with any concrete knowledge of whether Richmond did get infected through heterosexual sex or because he was bi-sexual is talking, in all likelyhood the truth will never be known. Which brings up the point, does it matter ?
Well to those who were or could have been infected and who are still alive, most definitely. And there are those who may be walking around with a ticking time bomb where for one reason or another the HIV virus has not kicked in. Believe me, I have no expertise in medicine, but since the gay plague came into being, people have gone years without knowing they were infected until it was too late.
As any corporation will do just about anything to deny a problem (just look at Toyota) to protect their corporate image, as Hinton wrote, so too did NASCAR, NASCAR very likely knew Richmond had AIDS. Any bleeding injuries he might sustain on the track might put at risk their safety workers, who didn’t wear protective gloves at the time. And ordering the workers to take such precautions might spread a panic.
And so many will say as it were, let sleeping dogs lie, have respect for Richmond’s family and leave the memory of Tim Richmond to what it was. But if you were one of those who had a sexual encounter with Richmond wouldn’t you want to know the truth ?
Or at least the truth which someone is finally willing to say after all these years. That of course presuming they are still alive to tell it.
