thebeanbandits.com

Bonneville 2010

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:46:49 +0000

Everything went great this year. A few broken records and a smashed one. The LA crew showed up BIG this year. Diana Branch powered the Vintage Hammer rear engine modified roadster to a record run as well. Here is the vid;

Here is the record setting take off for Dan and the 131 car;

The OG Ruben made it out this year. Maybe next year we can get Eagle and Ruben out at the same time too. All around a great week with all crews showing up big.

Antique Drags 2010

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:51:31 +0000

June was the Antique Drags in LA (Fontana) and it had a great turnout. A great collection of historical cars and new builds. Of course the Bean Bandit dragster made a pit appearance…

Here is Dick doing some prep;

The crews from LA and SD both made the event. Tom and Diana Branch, Fabian, Jake, and we even saw Ricardo aka Crusty was there.

Lance Conklin got an amazing reaction time of something like 0.03 in the ’53 Mainline which is unheard of. Sal Barbier was still nowhere to be found.

The Bandit Dragster is a site to see. It sounds BAD ASS…

El Mirage June 2010

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:09:02 +0000

June wasn’t a good weekend for the 296 car. Mainline was hurt, time for a rebuild.

However the crew made it out and had a great time racing as usual. Ruben even made it out for some good times and some good photos with the vintage camera. We’ll have to get lance to comment on the camera since I know jack about that stuff.

The trip up was great. Ruben pointed us to some great food along the way. If you are wondering if the food was really that good, the name of the restaurant says it all;

Car broken;

Lance and Ruben, the OG of the trip.

El Mirage May 2010

admin — Sat, 22 May 2010 20:28:16 +0000

Being that it was the first weekend of the racing season at El Mirage, there were a lot of appearances from all the Bean Bandits crew. Derby Pattengill actually ran his sedan as well.

Julio brought out the Belly Tank too;

131 does it this time

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:50:34 +0000

The 131 does it in the July El Mirage meet. Derby Pattengill ran 196.401 on a 193.879 record in the F/BGMR class. They were running Russ Eyersí half motor, which is a blown small block Chevy running on only 4 cylinders.

I guess you could say that the record breaking run was done in overtime as this was the fourth run (I think) of the day. Most days you will get two runs if you are lucky and the weather holds up. All this done with an engine issue on the first run and a parachute failure on the next run. A trip out the back door and some fine tuning later; The record.

This is a great example of a car that can take may different motors and be competitive in multiple classes.

To add to the good news Aron Oakes beat his own record from the June meet. Running a 144.998 on a 144.085.

Oooh so close…

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:45:37 +0000

The 131 car was so close to the record in itís class at El Mirage it hurt. With Dan Waldrop driving the car went through the traps at 193.145 on a record of 193.879. That is a tough one to get over. Especially when you do it on the first run and donít come as close the next time. Hey that is what racing is all about.

I’m sure the regular maintenance and some sort of improvements will be done at Julio “Lefty” Hernandezí new shop down in San Diego. All the car needs is 1mph, shouldnít be that hard ey? Youíd be surprised how difficult that last bit can be. Everyone worked very hard on the 131 car and it showed. A great day of racing.

Check out Julio’s shop when you get a chance, I think he is up and running 100% by now.

The Eagle has landed

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:11:04 +0000

In Bonneville. After many years MATHIAS “THE EAGLE” PONCE made it back to Bonneville Speed Week. He was able to help out fellow Bean Bandit Jake Doomey and his crew of Lance Dawes and Chad Ausburn run the Flathead powered ’53 Ford Mainline to a top speed of 115 and change. And the car never broke, all week long.

Eagle has raced many things over many years and he was a valuable asset to the race team. Whenever we need him he was there and straight handled it.

Eagle was a key part of all of us having a great time, sharing the work load, driving the truck and trailer when needed. And he is hilarious. It was great to see a real legend back out on the salt, especially an OG Bean Bandit.

It looks like he had a good time;

Congratulations to Tom and Fabian

admin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:34:51 +0000

A quote from Tom Branch on the Bean Bandit’s Myspace;

“I just wanted to take the time to publicly thank Ryan and everyone on the HAMB for voting my car as the “Best Roadster” at GNRS!

When I found out my roadster was nominated I was truly honored. However, I didn’t think Iíd have a chance of winning against such stiff competition!

It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to have my roadster finished to a level thatíd be worthy of showing at GNRS. Since it’s a driver, I knew it wouldnít score very high on the judges score cards, so I never expected any recognition for it.

Finding out that such a huge group of my peers deemed my car worthy of this award is overwhelming. Who cares what a handful of indoor car show judges think when you’ve got the peoples vote! Receiving this award has made this whole indoor show experience extremely gratifying, to say the least.”