There is very little NHRA world championship tuner Lee Beard hasn’t accomplished or seen in the sport of drag racing.

Beard, however, had a first Saturday when he came to his first Pro Mod race – the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod event – at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo., near Denver.

“I heard they were having a race here that paid a lot of money and I thought I would come see what these guys do,” Beard said. “To be honest with you, this is my first time being to a Pro Mod race.”

Beard, who retired from drag racing in 2017, now lives in Silverthorne, Colo., which is a one hour from Bandimere Speedway.

“What I think is cool about it is that there are so many different packages they can run,” Beard said. “You have your supercharged cars, you have turbocharged cars, you have your nitrous cars, a lot of different packages. The fact that they run heads up and all run pretty close. It seems pretty interesting to me.”

Beard, however, has no plans of returning to drag racing.

“My destination company is Twist Fly Fishing Adventures,” Beard said. “Basically, what I do is I book clients in with the best guides and top resorts. I love retirement.”

Beard tuned the late Gary Ormsby to an NHRA Top Fuel title in 1989.

In 1992, Beard won a world championship as team manager of Larry Minor Motorsports when Cruz Pedregon captured the nitro Funny Car title. He also was the team manager at Don Schumacher Racing when Tony Schumacher was the Top Fuel champ in 2009.

During his decorated career, Beard amassed 55 NHRA national event wins with 12 different drivers in Top Fuel and Funny Car. Beard is Crew Chief in the NHRA to win national events in Top Fuel and Funny Car with 12 different drivers. Six of those were first-time winners.

Beard's first NHRA national event win as a crew chief came in 1980 when he guided Jerry Ruth to the Top Fuel title at the Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

Beard actually has won national events with 14 different drivers in his career. Beard's last two wins came in 2016 and 2017 as he guided Larry Dixon and Dom Lagana to wins in Australia while working for Santo Rapisarda.