BEARD LOOKING FORWARD TO LATEST CHALLENGE
Lee Beard, a world championship crew chief and team manager, has never been afraid to take on a challenge.
Bead’s latest challenge began last week when he signed to serve as the director of operations for Rapisarda Autosport International led by Australian crane mogul Santo Rapisarda and his sons, Santo Jr. and Santino.
“Santo (Sr.) and I have become personal friends because he purchased a home right around the corner from where I live (in Brownsburg, Ind.),” Beard said. “I went and visited him (Santo) in Australia around New Year’s and my wife and I spent some time with him and his family and looked over their racing operation there and his business and enjoyed the holidays. We talked about drivers who were available and who we thought would best fit with the operation and try to look toward the future of growing it into a top-notch professional team. With everybody who was available, we thought Larry Dixon was the best choice.”
Beard and Dixon, who won NHRA Top Fuel world titles in 2002, 2003 and 2010, will be campaigning a Rapisarda Autosport International Top Fuel dragster in NHRA’s 2013 Mello Yello Series and possibly in the ANDRA Australia Drag Racing Series.
Lee Beard, a world championship crew chief and team manager, has never been afraid to take on a challenge.
Bead’s latest challenge began last week when he signed to serve as the director of operations for Rapisarda Autosport International led by Australian crane mogul Santo Rapisarda and his sons, Santo Jr. and Santino.
“Santo (Sr.) and I have become personal friends because he purchased a home right around the corner from where I live (in Brownsburg, Ind.),” Beard said. “I went and visited him (Santo) in Australia around New Year’s and my wife and I spent some time with him and his family and looked over their racing operation there and his business and enjoyed the holidays. We talked about drivers who were available and who we thought would best fit with the operation and try to look toward the future of growing it into a top-notch professional team. With everybody who was available, we thought Larry Dixon was the best choice.”
Beard and Dixon, who won NHRA Top Fuel world titles in 2002, 2003 and 2010, will be campaigning a Rapisarda Autosport International Top Fuel dragster in NHRA’s 2013 Mello Yello Series and possibly in the ANDRA Australia Drag Racing Series.
“We are going to run somewhere between 12 to 18 (NHRA) races depending on how the car performs,” Beard said. “The better it performs, the more races we will run, but we will run a minimum of 12. If we acquire some associate sponsors or a primary sponsor along the way we will end up running as many as we can.”
Beard said he doesn’t have an exact race pinpointed when the Rapisarda Autosport International Top Fuel dragster will begin its 2013 NHRA season.
“As far as when we are going to get out there we are really kind of at the mercy of the manufacturers,” Beard said. “Right now what I’m doing is a complete restoration of transporters, shops, and race cars. The whole operation is being gone through and restored or replaced, whatever it takes to get it up to speed to be a professional race team. We also got a late start because we really didn’t even put the program together until probably around Jan. 10. That is when the final decisions were made whether or not we were going to do it or not. Because we got such a late start, we are at the back of the pack on equipment. Most of the manufacturers are telling us they are needing four to six weeks to deliver to us because the other teams had already put their orders in and we are at the bottom of the list as far as manufacturers go. We are trying are hardest to make Pomona, but I do not think we will have all the parts and pieces in time for that. Realistically, we are probably looking at Gainesville.”
The NHRA begins Feb. 14-17 with the Winternationals at Pomona, Calif. The Arizona Nationals Feb. 22-24 is the second race of the year, followed by the Gatornationals March 14-17 in Gainesville (Fla.).
Beard also was unsure when he and Dixon might compete in the ANDRA Australia Drag Racing Series.
“We are going to see how that goes,” said Beard about racing in Australia. “Right now our focus is on running here in the United States and getting this car competitive. They (Rapisarda Autosport International) currently have a driver in Australia and they are getting ready to race in Perth (Feb. 1-2).”
Last season, Beard helped guide Cruz Pedregon to a fourth place finish in the final Funny Car point standings. Pedregron won one race, the season finale NHRA Finals at Pomona on Nov. 11. Beard and Pedregon parted ways on Nov. 26.
Beard was the crew chief when Gary Ormsby won NHRA’s 1989 Top Fuel world title and he was the team manager at Don Schumacher Racing when Tony Schumacher captured the 2009 Top Fuel crown.
Beard has guided drivers to 54 national event wins and 65 No. 1 qualifying positions as a crew chief. Beard also is the only crew chief in the NHRA to win races with 11 different drivers. Beard won the U.S. Nationals as a crew chief in 1992, ’96 and 2001.
“My official title is director of operations (for Rapisarda Autosport International) and this is an international organization, it is no longer called Rapisarda Racing,” Beard said. “I’m consulting on the entire operation, the Australia side and the U.S. side. We will be putting my combination in the Top Fuel car here (in the United States) and I will be directing it and my role will be to teach his (Santo’s) sons Santo Jr. and Santino to become crew chiefs. They have experience working in Australia and they were tuning the car here in the U.S. for the past year and a half with the guidance of Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler from Don Schumacher’s organization.”
Beard already has plan in place of how he envisions things working out for the Rapisarda Autosport International team.
“I’m approaching this from a business model that I used when I went to work for David Powers,” Beard said. “With Powers, we started off with a one-car team that was funded out of his own pocket and out of his business David Powers Homes. Over about a three-year period, it grew into a two-car team with corporate sponsors Catepillar and Matco Tools and drivers Rod Fuller and Antron Brown. I’m real excited about this opportunity to get to work with Larry Dixon and work with really great people like Santo Rapisarda and his sons, Santo Jr. and Santino.”
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