Tim Richmond remind ESPN documentary: TimRichmond leaned out the window of acondominium over a Turn Charlotte MotorSpeedway, watching a race to continue without him. The noise of cars racing left him breath, his desire to be on the runway clear.
It was October 10, 1987, and Richmond had been a car nearly two months.
"That's what I usually do here, and I will do it again and hopefully I'll do well," he told a camera crew.
He has never run again.
rapid rise and fall of Richmond in NASCAR - he became a superstar in just six full seasons of racing, only to become one of its most controversial figure in its losing battle with AIDS - has was captured by ESPN in its 30 for 30 documentary series. The last album, "Tim Richmond to the limit," is broadcast Tuesday night.
Produced and directed by NASCAR Media Group, the documentary relies on interviews and footage old race, and lookback by those who knew Richmond and watch his rollercoaster ride through NASCAR.
It does not sugarcoat anything.
Richmond had his struggles when he entered NASCAR in 1980. He was flamboyant, loved the clothes, women and parties, and did not lead the same lifestyle as its competitors.
"I'm proving that I was put on this earth to have fun," said Richmond early in the film, "to succeed in the service of pleasure."
Did he ever.
Born into a family of wealth, Richmond did not have to pick his way through a course. While Richard Petty was wearing a cowboy hat and boots - wear common to the good old boys of NASCAR then - Richmond favorite silk costumes and share a boat between his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and an apartment in New York.
He also loved a good time.
Almost all the images that exist today in Richmond tells the driver to experience it in a beer shower spray in Victory Lane and surrounded by pretty girls. In one scene, he showed Tim Richmond sporting a T-shirt that says "sleep with a winner."
He rubbed most of its competitors in the wrong direction.
"I knew he was a heck of a race car driver," Petty said in an interview today, but I do not know how Strung Out, he was on something to make him that way. You know what I mean, I mean, if I took something, he would have been different, too. "
NASCAR had no policy of drug testing at the time, and rumors Richmond followed his career despite his denials constants.
But his career took off - Richmond won seven races in 1986 including the season finale, where he beat Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip in Riverside and finished third in the standings - his health was deteriorating rapidly.
The film shows Richmond struggling with a persistent cough during the '86 season. He went first as the Asian flu and pneumonia. His ailments caused him to miss the first 11 races of the 1987 season.
Rumors were rampant that he had AIDS, but Richmond, who likely contracted the virus through heterosexual, he dismissed all the way until his death. He returned to competition at Pocono in 1987 and won, he followed with another victory next week in Riverside.
His health was up and down the rest of the year, and it was out of the car for good, after Michigan in August. He fought and lost a battle with NASCAR to participate in an exhibition race at Daytona the following February, in part because he refused to surrender his medical records, in part because NASCAR said he failed a doping test officials later admitted was wrong.
But he never ran again, and retired to Florida this year he has lived isolated from everyone except his family until his death August 13, 1989 at the age of 34.
"In hindsight, you think what could have been? How could Tim Richmond to win championships? "Rick Hendrick thoughtful application in the film.
The documentary does an excellent job of showing the charisma Richmond brought to NASCAR, his exploits on the track and its constant struggle for acceptance within a traditional community wary of outsiders.
Director Rory Karpf NASCAR Media Group has worked with Richmond's sister, Sandy Welsh, on the film. She was reluctant to accept a project because she feared that all the old wounds could be reopened by seeing history unfold from his brother.
"I did not want it to be dragged through the mud again, and all the dirt back," she said.
But when Karpf finally showed his final project, she was in tears.
"It was a good person, and it was complex and was always ahead of his time," said Welsh. "It is amazing that after 21 years that people still love him, still talking. For many years it was like Tim did not exist. But here he was again in a film that tells the truth, and it is very difficult to say Tim's life in 51 minutes. But if you knew 51 minutes will do it for you. "