All local Powell high schooler Kayla Peterson wanted for Christmas was a transmission for a 1974 Plymouth Duster. Her doting father, Ryan Smith, happily obliged and installed it while she was on Christmas vacation. 

It was an apt gift for Smith to give. Two years ago when Peterson was 14, he bought his daughter the Duster, which they began rebuilding together.

Smith recalled that upon purchase the car had no motor and no transmission. It “was missing some other stuff too.” Slowly but surely Smith and his daughter began completing the car. They switched out the front K-member (a structural component of the car’s chassis) so the duster could house a V8 engine, installed a transmission and made other alterations to make the car faster.

“She helped with everything so she could learn, like putting the motor together. She was there helping me put the motor together, put the motor in, the transmission was the only one I did by myself,” Smith said. 

In the same way a father leaves his mark on his daughter, Ryan Smith’s influence can be seen in the blacked out hot rod he built for himself and the bright red Duster, built by Smith and his daughter.

Smith has owned his hot rod from the time he was 16 years old. It had been sitting dormant for nine years when he rebuilt the car three years ago and began racing the pro division in the Billings Drag Racing Association. Apart from a new coat of paint and a roll bar, Smith said that the car has stayed the same as it was when he was 16 years old. After riding in her dad’s hot rod, Kayla Peterson also caught the need for speed.

“Dad inspired me,” Peterson said with a laugh.

Peterson, who is now the same age as her father was when he first got his hot rod, has been racing for one year. In that time she won her first race, gathered a number of trophies and came in second for total points accumulated during the season in the high school division. In her first year, Peterson attended all nine official races, as well as locally sanctioned races in Greybull and on Polecat Bench just  for the fun of it. 

The association races work as brackets, racers compete to be the last man standing in order to win trophies and points.

But the work isn’t done. This winter they hope to repaint the car and do additional body work. Smith joked that the car definitely has a good side. 

Father and daughter answered almost in unison when asked what other work would be done to the car. “Make it faster.”

Peterson’s goal of course, is to “win the whole thing,” meaning she will need the most points at the end of the season which runs from May to September and fast cars win races.