In October of 1997 land-speed racers from around the world converged on the small town of Wendover, located nine miles from the Bonneville Salt Flats in the state of Utah. They have arrived for the annual World of Speed meet to compete against land-speed records in several of the wheel-driven classes, including the Electric and Thrust (jet car) categories.

The Bean Bandits traveled in two vehicles. In club member Pat Durant’s motor home and the club’s President and Drag Racing Hall of Fame member Joaquin Arnett’s white cargo van which hauled the streamliner on a makeshift trailer. Arnett and his youngest surviving son Jeff having taken turns at the wheel of the van for the long drive. Arnett’s oldest son, Sonny, had died two years ago at El Mirage Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert when the loss of air pressure in the rear tire of the streamliner, streaking along the dry beds at over three hundred mile per hour, caused Sonny to lose control. The yellow streamliner began wobbling at first as Sonny fought to keep it straight, then the streamliner quickly turned and went into a roll and soon began tumbling and cartwheeling into a cloud of dust.

As the Bean Bandits approached the vast whiteness of the salt flats, club photographer Ruben Lovato, 67, sat in the passenger seat of the motor home and pondered.

“Out here there are no skyscrapers, no neighbors. The mind isn’t limited. You can just let go. At home I have bars on my windows, which I never thought I would have. I have a .357 magnum and a .22. If someone tries getting in, he’s going to make a lot of noise and by then I’ll have pumped six big ones into his ass. Now, tell me if I’m living in a world of tranquility? I’m a civilized man, but damn. The way we’re going, we’re going to have one world for blacks, one for Mexicans, one for this race, one for that race. We can have that, or we can all try to live in peace. People don’t know what they have.”

A certain Zen quality of the salt flats made philosophers out of some and inspired others to awe. Nature’s stillness made men realize they are transitory: nature is not going anywhere. The salt flats gave one perspective, as Lovato liked to say, and, as the Bean Bandits knew too well, tested the limits of all who came. The salt flats made you work, and it made you think.