Tim 's driving days started as a toddler when he was given a go @-@ kart that he often drove inside buildings and across his lawn . He later raced the kart at tracks in Moreland and New Pittsburg . Richmond grew up in a well @-@ to @-@ do family , and was sometimes therefore treated differently by his classmates , so his parents enrolled him in Miami Military Academy in Miami , Florida . During his years in Miami , Tim and his mother moved to Florida and his father stayed in Ohio . While home in Ohio over a summer break , he met local drag racer Raymond Beadle through lifelong friend Fred Miller . When Richmond reached age 16 , his parents purchased him a Pontiac Trans Am , a speedboat and a Piper Cherokee airplane for his birthday . Yet his mother Evelyn often worried about spoiling her only son . She once said , " Tim was lazy ... " , and " ... I did everything for him . I ruined him , I admit it . He was my whole life . "