Tim Richmond: Driven to the Past

[thomas32565]

Seems that there is somewhat of a discussion going on in the comments section of my artice as to how Tim Richmond contacted HIV/AIDS.  I omitted the fact that Richmond's doctor, at the family's urging released the information that Tim Richmond died of AIDS 10-days after his death.  In the announcement, Dr. David Dodson stated that he was convinced that Richmond contacted the disease through hetrosexual contact.

I am a little surprised that the issue of how he became infected would still be of so much interest some 18-years later.  It makes it easier for me to understand why Richmond preferred not to discuss it at the time.  We apparently haven't evolved a lot when it comes to the topic of AIDS.

[KurtBuschFan]

I don't know if it's so much how he got the disease but rather the stigma and apparent "public knowledge" of it.  Society as a whole doesn't know enough to understand the disease, and beyond that, what does it matter?  No one ever asks how/where someone got a cold from?  If he wasn't forthcoming with any partners, then shame on him, but at this point, who cares how he got it?  Just my opinion of course.

[Yatesguy]

I've been a fan of NASCAR for over 40 years. There is no segment of it's history that I am more ashamed of.  Too many people made up their minds a long time ago and there's no changing them. It disgusts me the way his name has been dragged through the mud and I think the NASCAR community owes his family an apology.

Just a bit of a warning, this very topic blew up into a debate that got pretty ugly on an earlier version of this forum.

[KurtBuschFan]

Yeah YG...I remember that debate.  As long as everyone behaves and respects others' opinions, we'll be alright.

[FS Myron]

How Richmond contracted the disease should not matter. The fact that he contracted it, knew he had it, and had unprotected sex with at least one partner is the reprehensible fact in this whole story. I was a big Tim Richmond fan. Had he lived, Dale Earnhardt would not have won seven championships. Richmond would probably be in the top 10 all time in wins in the series. But the fact that he knowingly put another person's life at risk without the decency of warning her about what was possibly at stake is shameful.

[rustyfan2]

I once got grilled by people in the Catskills because of something Tim may or may not have done after winning a race at Watkins Glen a few years back. In fact, it's been quite a few years back. Tim kinda disappeared after the race up there and since I attended that race everyone thought that I should know where he was and what he was doing . I never even knew the man and had no idea if he really was still in upstate New York at the time. I guess maybe later he did some things there that he shouldn't have, but he did nothing more than I did at the time. I just wasn't famous like him.

 

[danzinbeccahome]

Yeah, go ask Dustbowl...I'll bet she'll know !!