I have been looking at all the changes in the last years from the Bean Bandit Racing Team the friends of my dad organized to the current situation. I am confused as to the status of the racing and cars. Although I did not mean this blog to be about the current issues of the clubs. I intend it to be just a memory of my father, his contributions to drag racing along with stories of his doings, from family and friends. I am now on Facebook, and have been able to follow some of those that knew him personally.
A couple of months ago Brad Sonka sent me a note he wrote to a friend about Joaquin. This is it;
"My father in law from my first marriage , Jaoquin Arnett, was an early dragracer. He built everything from scratch himself with no sponsors and was eventually outspent by those with sponsorships. He ran a twin engine car in the early 50's that ran in six different classes by reconfiguring the car in minutes between races. One engine, two engines fenders on or off, The first time out they won so many of the races the NHRA limited them to four classes. Their club, The Bean Bandits were the top eliminator in many of the first meets but when you read dragracing acticles about the history of dradracing, they mention all the names people are familiar with and then mention the Bean Bandits won. He mostly ran a merc engine on a rear engine chassis,, one of the very first. The engine had a set of Ardun heads that he had further improved and that were the first set designed and manufactured by Xorius Duntoff, the designer of the Corvette. The engine is still being raced today by the club. Duntoff tried for years to trade Joaquin another set of the heads so Duntoff could have the original #001 set. Jaoquin finally agreed to give him the brass serial number tags off the heads.
When I look at the pictures of Ivos history it makes me smile as I look at the fancy machine shop equipment and then think about Jaoquin machining his own carburetors with a drill press in his garage, shaping his own sheet metal, and machining larger parts on a brake drum lathe. He has been inducted into both NHRA and Garlitts museum. I went to his induction in Gainsville Florida held in conjunction with the NHRA Gator Nationals and witnessed the first over 300MPH run."
