History

Dustin Bryson has racing DNA that dates to the famed Beach and Road Course in Daytona Beach, Florida.

His great uncle, Jack Smith, was a 21-time winner in what is now the NASCAR Cup Series from 1956 to 1962. In fact, he was the 50th winner in Cup Series history. He also claimed NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award in 1959 and is an inductee in the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame. Inductions in the Daytona Beach Hall of Fame and Georgia Racing Hall of Fame are among his many other accolades.

Jack Smith’s brother Ed also raced three days a week in the era, while Doug Bryson, Dustin’s paternal grandfather, was a talented driver on dirt and asphalt in Georgia with some of his engines built by the renowned Ernie Elliott.

Dustin’s dad Darrell Bryson, also known as “Booty,” carried on the Georgia family tradition. He won track championships at Lanier Speedway in Braselton and Peach State Speedway (most recently Gresham Motorsports Park) in Jefferson.

Dustin Bryson was next to get behind the wheel, but he spent many of his early years in the pits. In fact, in those days it was not uncommon to need to be 16 years old to enter the pit area. At one track, a woman working the gate commented he seemed to be the same age for three years.

Growing up there was no ride available for Dustin. However, he practiced a car at Peach State and ran one race when he was 18 years old. He finally got behind the wheel consistently when he turned 20 and won his second race.

When he started a family, he stepped away from the driver’s seat for 18 years but returned slowly in go-karts and iRacing. After his father passed away in 2020, he returned to the track full-time with a renewed desire to follow dreams that started as a kid.

Today, he carries the No. 47 on his Bryson Lopez Racing Pro Late Model. The number has been part of his family dating back to the days of Jack Smith. In addition to driving duties, Dustin builds the team’s race cars, handles set up and body work, and mentors the team’s young drivers, all fueled by his competitive passion.

Not in the news – my father “Big Ed,” aka "Big Fingers," has the longest history in the No. 47. Dustin will soon surpass him.

My father was involved in racing after coming back from Korea in the '50s and worked for his much older brother, Jack. Jack was racing full-time and my father was building cars and at the track with the No. 47 team.

Ed Smith spent time at the Spartanburg Fairgrounds and Greenville-Pickens and was well-known because of his brother.

Spartanburg , South Carolina, was a hotbed of racing back then, like the Mooresville and Charlotte areas of North Carolina are today.

Nearly the same age, David Person and Ed met at those local tracks around Spartanburg. Sometime after Jack's win at the frist Bristol race in 1961, Ed left Jack and worked with Pearson and others building cars and racing himself.

Jack and Ed’s falling out never really got better, but after Jack quit in 1964, Ed did not.

He went to work on several teams and made a living building winning cars. In 1967, Ed and TC Hunt built two brand new '67 Camaro RS Z/28s and ran what is now called the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but known then as Grand Touring (later Grand American). They ran the Saturday before the Sunday race.

The '67 Camaro seats that were removed from the new cars were in my basement until the '70s when a boy born in Spartanburg moved them to the trash after years of being a pretend driver in those seats. His name was Scott.

The team's No. 88 had no sponsors and raced at any track where they could win money in the beginning. In 1969 TC stopped driving after finishing fourth in points in the NASCAR Grand American Series.

Ed also started many races just to test and keep the backup No. 88 car car shaken down. He would pull off after a few laps, so technically he drove in the series too, and if you search hard you find him as starting but not finishing a few races.

In 1969, Ed's son Scott Smith drove the red wagon down pit road at Daytona, the photo made the Sunday paper.

The rebirth of the No. 47 also began that year when Doug Bryson and Ed Smith built a Chevy II Nova. The engines were from Ed’s Camaros that TC had driven to that fourth-place points result.

Ed was a fan of higher revs and machined those engines in his friend Reed's shop in Tucker, Georgia. They swapped cams like others changed tires. Always testing, Ed built the first large-bore carburetor by machining two Holley two-barrel 500s he epoxied together.

He also used another machine shop a lot and took his son Scott to Dawsonville, Georgia, to stay all day on a few occasions. There he watched his father take apart and put together an engine over and over. Ed used a lapping compound until he could “feel” all the pieces moving smoothly together, rumor was that those engines ran at close to 10,000 rpm. Cams by Ed and Reed, along with engines, were sometimes machined at Elliot Engineering in Dawsonville. That iis a familiar name in racing today.

The No. 47 was strong and was always expected to win. And they won a lot. Doug Bryson and Ed were friends and made a mark.