Tim Richards
As a young boy, Tim was working his paper route that took him past a barn that always had a lot of noise coming from it. One day he stopped in to see what it was about and found three guys working on their hot rods. After hanging around the barn for a while, he realized this was something he wanted to become more involved in. While he did very well in regular school, in 1959 he was able to pass the entrance exam for the Johnson School of Technology and spent the next three years learning everything from math to tool making.
When he was 19 he bought his first car, a 1963 Plymouth powered with a 426 CI RAM-inducted engine. Shortly after he purchased this vehicle, Pocono Drag Lodge opened its doors and Tim turned the Plymouth into a full-time race car. While he didn’t know much about increasing its performance, Tim turned to various books and magazines to learn as much as he could.
In 1969 he secured a ride in a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner set up for racing with a 426 CI Chrysler hemi for power. The Roadrunner was replaced with a Chrysler hemi powered Superbird for a few months then followed with a Plymouth Barracuda also powered with the 426 CI Chrysler hemi. Tim was working at Ingersoll-Rand as a toolmaker but learning all he could about improving the performance of these engines.
What he learned driving, tuning and engine building these vehicles enabled him to open his own “after work” engine building business in 1971 specializing in both the 426 CI Wedge and 426 CI hemi engines.
In 1972 Tim Received a call from Joe Amato about working together on Joe’s next race car, a Chrysler hemi powered A/Fuel funny car. Beginning in 1982 they moved up the ranks to Top Fuel Dragster. During their time together, Joe and Tim won 31 NHRA national top fuel events and 4 NHRA World Championship’s.
In 1993 Kim joined Tim as assistant Crew Chief for the remainder of his racing career.
Tim took over the Crew Chief duties for Chuck Etchells AA/Fuel Funny car in Gainesville 1993 with the team posting a total of 9 NHRA national events and 1 win with Whit Bazemore driving.
1994 found Tim working as Crew Chief for Connie Kalitta’s Top Fuel Dragster winning 3 NHRA national events and the most memorable race for the team that year was winning the NHRA U S Nationals in Indy.
In 1995 went back to Chuck Etchells until 2000
Tim assumed the Crew Chief duties for Kenny Bernstein’s Budweiser King in 2001 and with Kenny at the wheel, helped guide the team to an impressive 16 NHRA AA/Fuel Dragster events and 1 NHRA World Championship. With Brandon Bernstein at the wheel of the Budweiser King, the team notched another 17 NHRA national event wins before Tim made the decision to retire from drag racing at the end of the 2008 season.
Tim came out of retirement for the 2011 race season and was crew chief for Ron Capps winning 2 more national events and then went back into retirement.
Tim’s win record as a Crew Chief is pretty impressive, 67 NHRA Fuel Dragster wins, 12 NHRA Funny Car wins, 5 NHRA World Championships with 5 wins coming at the U S Nationals in Indianapolis. He was also the tuner for Chuck Etchells AA/Funny Car when it posted the first ever 4 second run for a funny car in NHRA history.