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It played out like a vintage Hollywood motion picture. A hardworking, talented young protégé quietly waits in the wings to prove his stuff suddenly gets the chance, stepping out of the shadows to finally follow his ultimate destiny.

This was the back story to Justin “Bean” Smith’s heroic performance at January’s SCORE season opener. The big difference; Justin’s unlikely tale wasn’t made-up. His was the real deal.

This script featured the torturous, wind-swept Laughlin desert as its backdrop and a group of misfits (a.k.a. the Desert Assassins) as its lead characters. The storyline revolves around the group’s head misfit—a hellion named Cameron Steele—who was forced to relinquish control of his beloved #16 Trophy Truck in an attempt to bolster his rather suspect broadcasting career. Unable to do both at once, Steele had to find a replacement driver. Surprisingly, he grants a young protégé nicknamed “Bean” the shot of a lifetime.

And guess what? In true Hollywood tradition, Justin “Bean” Smith became an overnight sensation thanks to making the most of his big break.

A highly-experienced co-driver and well-established member of the Desert Assassins, for 2009 Bean stepped up as a team owner and driver in the ultra-competitive 1-2/1600 Class. It was a good move, as he set a new class record in winning Thursday night’s popular “Laughlin Leap” competition. That same night, Rick Gieser—Steele’s original choice as his Laughlin co-driver—compressed the vertebrae in his back. “After that, Cameron called me Friday morning to shake down the truck during pre-running. I had only driven the truck a couple of miles in testing. That went well, so he called me later and said; ‘Hey, go out there and qualify my truck, but take it easy.’”

Smith says he took it easy, still ending up with a performance so strong it netted him the session’s sixth fastest time. “I was absolutely shocked,” he confesses. “We were just a second behind Brian Collins and two seconds behind Travis Coyne. Those guys are top-notch Trophy-Truck drivers who’ve been doing this for years.”

Bolstered by Smith’s stunning qualifying run, Steele flew into town on Saturday to post the kind of conservative performance (he placed sixth despite replacing a flat tire) that historically leads to good things on Sunday under Laughlin’s unique two-day format.

Early the next morning, Steele finally called to instruct his young driver to “play it smart and try to give us a top five.”

One lap at a time, Smith followed Steele’s conservative orders and saw his competition fall by the wayside. In the end, the amazingly mature talents of young Justin Smith took Steele and his Desert Assassins Trophy-Truck team to its best finish in a major desert race ever.

“It’s definitely intimidating, I’m not going to lie,” he admits. “It’s a new world. I don’t think Cameron will hear the end of this for a long, long time. Maybe he, or even somebody else, will call me again to drive a Trophy-Truck.”