Tim Richmond

The Fast Life and Remarkable Times of NASCAR's Top Gun

By: David Poole

Narrated by: Christine Padovan

Tim Richmond was, fellow NASCAR driver Kyle Petty said, "a stranger in time." In one regard, the flashy, flamboyant driver from Ashland, Ohio, was years ahead of the trends in a sport that would soon enjoy explosive growth in popularity. Women who were NASCAR fans loved him - and so did their husbands and boyfriends.

Richmond believed he could use his stardom in racing as a springboard to a second career as an actor, and he had the Hollywood good looks to make that a realistic dream. At the same time, Richmond was also a throwback. He pushed his race cars hard, too hard at times, driving every lap like he was hauling moonshine through the mountains of the Carolinas with a revenuer on his rear bumper. Those who saw him drive still compare him to veterans like Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly, who ran as hard off the track as they did off of it.

In the early 1980s, however, Richmond stood out. He was not from the South; he had not grown up slinging a stock car through the dirt on red-clay ovals. He had, in fact, never raced at all until he was 21. And just 10 years later, after making a splash in the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie, he was emerging as one of the brightest stars and greatest talents in NASCAR's Winston Cup Series. Richmond's star was bright, but its light went out too soon.

As he neared stock car racing's zenith, Richmond's life took a tragic turn. A man who thrived on the affection he felt from those who enjoyed watching him compete spent his final months almost completely shut off from that world. Tim Richmond: The Fast Life and Remarkable Times of NASCAR's Top Gun tells the memorable story of a born racer and how he raced headlong through life with the throttle wide open and his wheels burning rubber at almost every turn.

©2005, 2012 David Poole (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great story - As read by Siri!

Great story, Tims life story would make a great movie. I had to verify that the narrator was human after starting it however. She reads at the same cadence as Siri (maybe even worse), and puts the emphasis on the wrong syllables enough to make it quite annoying.

Excellent listen about one of the greatest

Great story of one of the greatest drivers NASCAR has ever known and one that lived life to the fullest and could always put smiles on peoples faces. Told by one of the best writers to cover the sport. Both of whom are greatly missed. Other than the butchering of many of the names by the narrator it was a great listen and you can still hear David Poole’s voice in the words.

Great story

Whoever is the narrator for this book should not ever narrate another thing. It was horrible. The book was awesome. I'm an English teacher and she pauses where she shouldn't and the sentences do not make sense. Then, she mispronounced several things and names.

Some wrong info but entertaining bio

The book did seem to have some wrong info, such as Bill Elliott winning the Daytona 500 during the Sudafed fiasco. Bobby Allison won it that year. The story was lacking in some of its statements, so that was disappointing, knowing more could have been gotten regarding Mr. Richmond's colorful life.

NASCAR is mainly a guy's pastime, so I would have expected a male narrator, but Ms Padovan's lower/tomboyish voice actually pulls off narrating this story very well. And I doubt Audible's Critics review would have said such glowing praise if they truly didn't like her narration. Looks like she actually researched some of the accents for certain well known folks because she emulated their vocal styling very well.

Overall, a very entertaining, interesting bio on the late, great Tim Richmond.

Narrator Sucks

This is a great book for a NASCAR or auto racing fan, but you must really be a BIG fan in order to tolerate the narration for the duration of the book. Sounds like a computer generated female voice, but worse. If you happen to be driving while listening to this book, you could easily mistake it for your navigation system and wind up completely lost.

good book, ok reading

good story, would have been better if the reader knew the names of the people in it. Her mispronounced names was somewhat distracting

Great story, terrible narrator

Great story but the narrator was terrible, she spoke in accents which were insultingly bad. Narrator did not take time to research the correct way to pronounce people's names or certain terms that stand out to avid fans of the sport. The story is fantastic and I wish I was old enough to have watched Tim race.

Terrible narration

Mispronunciations (names, cities, etc) everywhere. Production has to do better. Just like proof reading before the book goes to print

Excellent biography of Richmond.

I felt this was a very good account of the career of the short career and untimely death of Tim Richmond. What impressed me the most was the fairness of the dialogue about Richmond’s failed drug test that led to the end of his career. Richmond was always dreaming of his driving career and when he got his first win at Pocono (his best track) it was a thrill for him. It made the discovery that he had AIDS, which was still deadly at the time, all the more painful. As good as the story was, the narrator was even better as she was excellent. Highly recommend for NASCAR fans.

Tim Richmond bad a$$ behind the wheel!

Loved this book if Tim would have been healthy who knows how many Championships for Rick Hendrick he could have won. I do Not believe Earnhardt would have had 7, and would Jeff Gordon would have been Tim's teammate at Hendrick? I know Nascar did him wrong and owes him a place in the HALL of FAME period! Nascar screwed Tim over big time! Without any proof of drugs! They wanted him out! Highly recommend this book!