DIALED IN
Mutt and Jeff
Paul Burruss and Dylan Griffey
inject fun into annual bracket race
Story and Photos by Van Abernethy
P
aul Burruss and Dylan Griffey
readily admit they’re a couple of
“goofy guys” who don’t take them-
selves too seriously. After all, that
might get in the way of having tons
of fun, which is their chief goal in racing, as well
as in life in general.
“People have watched us follow each other
around and race together for years, and they’ve
made the observation that we act like Mutt and
Jeff,” laughs Burruss. By example, the original
Mutt and Jeff syndicated comic strip portrayed
a couple of characters who made people laugh,
primarily by picking on each other, and that de-
scription seemed to be the perfect fit for Burruss
and “Griff ”, as he’s affectionately known. “We are
brothers – not biological – but brothers none the
less,” they both agree.
The two are lifelong natives of Carlisle, Penn-
sylvania, and hung out at the Burruss farm grow-
ing up, along with many other young people in
the neighborhood. They eventually discovered
racing of many varieties and have competed in a
wide range of vehicles, including dirt track cars,
August 2018
snowmobiles, motorcycles, mud boggers, as well
as drag racing machines. They both stepped away
from racing at certain points in their lives, but
were later lured back to straight-line motorsports.
When Burruss made a return to drag racing, he
began attending events such as the Spring Fling,
Fall Fling and other celebrated bracket gather-
ings. “I was having so much fun, I told Griff that
he really needed to come experience these awe-
some events and see how much fun they were,”
Burruss recalls. Staying true to their Mutt and Jeff
resemblance, wherever one would go, the other
would follow – and something hilarious would
happen, for that you could be sure.
With each big bracket event they would attend
together, they begin to realize more and more
that they wanted to launch a race of their own,
so Mutt and Jeff Promotions was born! They
started off small at first, deciding upon a Super
Pro Electronics-only class event, which they held
at their local South Mountain Dragway in Penn-
sylvania four years ago. It was challenging from
the get-go since the original race date was rained
out and it actually snowed during the rescheduled
DragIllustrated.com
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