The late Chuck Etchells notched his name into the stone tablet of funny car history back in 1993 when he became the first driver to punch his way into the four second zone in a nitro funny car. On a weekend in Topeka, Kansas when the world was waiting for John Force to do the inevitable, it was Etchells who swooped in for the glory and the historical recognition. Like the video of Jim Epler smashing through the 300mph barrier on a cool late season weekend in Topeka, this one is also awesome. In this video we ride with Chuck Etchells for the first funny car 4-second run.

Force had run 5.01 and with Austin Coil making the tuning calls everyone just knew it was going to be his record to grab. Then Etchells happened. With Tim and Kim Richards leading his crew they threw the sink at the car and it stuck. We actually ran the stories in reverse order because in the scheme of the weekend “the four” came before the 300mph run. It was not just a cool thing to do, it was insanely lucrative for the day. Castrol put up a $25,000 bonus (because they expected Force was going to be the guy) and Etchells ran the table that weekend. Number one qualifier, Castrol bonus, and he won the race. He rightfully considered it the greatest weekend of his life. He’s pretty much speechless in the video below.

His funny car career began in the late 1970s with an ex-Jungle Jim car that had also been campaigned by Bruce Larson. He named the car Future Force and it proved to a prophetic move because over the span of his career Etchells won 13 national events and was considered one of the hardest runners of his day. With backing from Kendall Oil, Etchells made his first “full pull” of the NHRA tour in 1993 and his presence was felt. Between the historic moment in Topeka to being the runner up in the championship points chase, he was right there. During that 1993 season, Etchells became a fan favorite for the fact that his team was running on a lighter budget than many others. Tuned by Tim and Kim Richards, running on lots of Joe Amato “gently used” parts, and running hard enough to scare the grizzled veterans in the sport, they were popular with the people.