You have to know something about old British television shows to understand how Justin Smith got his nickname.
On New Year’s Day in 1990, a comedian and actor named Rowan Atkinson introduced a character named “Mr. Bean,” who finally was laid to rest a couple of years ago after a multi-year stay on television and in several movies.
“Bean” Smith said that was “when I was younger, like in middle school. They said I looked like Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean, so from there it kind of kept going.”
Smith has mixed emotions about the nickname, too, because “my mom is part Mexican” and derivations of the word sometimes have negative connotations, but it has become a part of his identity and the name “Justin ‘Bean’ Smith is painted over the doors of the Pro Lite truck he has driven in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series presented by GEICO since 2011.
If Smith ever feels like changing his nickname, however, “money” would do nicely given his success in the season-ending Challenge Cup races. He has started five of them, three in a Pro Lite and two in a Limited Buggy, and won four times.
The first win came in December 2009 at Lake Elsinore, California, when he won the Limited Buggy Cup by 7.4 seconds in his debut race in the series. He repeated that victory in 2010 to cap a season in which he won the Limited Buggy title and stood on the podium 13 times in 15 races. In 2011 he won the Pro Lite versus Pro Buggy Cup, even though he had run only three Pro Lite races during the season, and last October at Lake Elsinore he was victorious again, beating Sheldon Creed and RJ Anderson to the finish line.
There is a touch of irony here. Smith said the $20,000 prize he got for his 2011 Cup win financed a full-time move into Pro Lite in part because that’s where his sponsors wanted to be. He said he still doesn’t “know if it was a good step or a bad step,” though,” because money issues have hampered his efforts to become a consistent front-runner.
“It’s a lot more expensive to run these trucks and a lot more work than to run the buggies,” the 30-year-old Las Vegas resident said. “The last few years in Pro Lite have been really tough. We don't have the budget we were hoping to have and that most teams have so we've been working with what we've got. We've still got a decent resume, but we'd like to be better, more consistent in Pro Lite.
“The class keeps getting bigger and more competitive and everything else. It's tough, man. Everybody's hungry for it, everybody wants to win, so you've got to keep pushing harder than everybody else and try and push through. I think I can make our program better. It comes down to time and budget. We're working on it. I think we're close.”
The essence of Smith’s problem is that on occasion pushing through requires a willingness to take big risks, and with a limited budget, limited manpower and limited time between race weekends Smith admits there are times when “I’ve been a little bit too cautious, a little bit too nice.”
The Challenge Cup races bring the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series season to a close, however, and with several months to fix whatever happens to the truck being cautious and nice aren’t concerns.
Smith’s father, Randy, is the truck driver, chef and pit overseer for Brian Deegan, one of the founders of freestyle motocross. Justin Smith said he was a freestyle rider for a while, too, but “kind of got tired of getting hurt and wanted to better my chances of walking the rest of my life” and began racing in desert events with Cameron Steele in 2003.
“I like Pro Lite, but I would really like to go to Pro 2 or Pro 4,” Smith said. “I would like to make more of a statement in Pro Lite before I left, but at the same time I don't want to go to Pro 2 or Pro 4 unless I know I have a chance at winning.
“I want to win. I'm here to win. If I don't feel I can be here and win there's no reason for me to do this.”
JUSTIN ‘BEAN’ SMITH AT A GLANCE
Age: 30 (19 January 1984)
Lives in: Las Vegas
Marital status: Single
Occupation: Fabricator, race car driver
Car number: 19 Pro Lite
Type of chassis: JBS Motorsports Chevrolet
Engine: Redline Performance Chevrolet
Crew Chief: Brian Martin
Sponsors: BFGoodrich Tires, Competitive Metals, PCI Race Radios, JBS Motorsports, Method Race Wheels, Patrick’s Signs
Years in racing: 10
Divisions raced: Desert Unlimited and Limited buggies, Trophy Trucks, Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Limited Buggy, Pro Lite
Championships and awards: Lucas Oil Limited Buggy champion and Rookie of the Year, 2010; 4-Time Challenge Cup winner (2 in Limited Buggy, 2 in Pro Lite); 3-Time winner, Baja 500 and Baja 1000
Series points standings: 1 Limited Buggy (2010); 20 Pro Lite (2011); 15 ProLite (2012); 7 Pro Lite (2013)
