For the sixth year in a row, Paul Burruss and Dylan Griffey will be staging their Mutt & Jeff Promotions Race this year at Beaver Springs Dragway in central Pennsylvania. It began some years ago as a joke in relation to the long-running comic strip characters. The two mismatched gamblers, not unlike the comic strip pair, have been gambling with the race which highlights high dollar bracket racing.
From its original home in Maryland, the pair last year moved the race north to Beaver Springs Dragway. “Each year we’ve tried to give our customers, who are also many of our friends, a great experience,” said Burruss. “We’ve had a good relationship with Beaver Springs’s owner Mike McCracken, who is now into his third year as owner of the facility and he’s been making a lot of improvements. We worked with Mike last year and it was a rousing success. As such, it made no sense to move the race anywhere else.”
Scheduled since late last year on the weekend of June 18-20, there was still a lot of worry on the part of Burruss and Griffey due to the COVID-19 virus. “A lot of tracks have been shut down but Mike has worked diligently with local government officials,” says Burruss, “and the closer we got to our date, the clearer it became that we would be able to race without a problem.
Last year’s event originally was scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but Mother Nature with a bad Sunday forecast. Burruss and Griffey decided to take Sunday’s payout and add it to Saturday’s race, which was well-received by all in attendance. This year, they’ve taken the steps to run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, leaving Sunday as a rain/travel day for all.
On Thursday, gates open at 8:00 am time trials followed by eliminations for a $10,000-to-win payday. On tap for Thursday is also a limited 32-car dragster-only shootout race for a $4,000 payday.
Friday opens up with a $20,000-to-win affair in addition to a 64-car high roller shootout for an additional $10K to win. Saturday closes out the weekend with another $10K to win, followed by a limited field of door cars only for $4K-to-win.
“We’ve been looking forward to this race ever since last year’s event,” says Burruss, “and we can’t wait to get started. In addition to the purse, we’ve got a whole handbag full of product awards from a variety of sponsors. On Friday night, we’ll also have a Racer Appreciation Party with food and a DJ playing music.
“We’ve also established some ground rules in order to keep everyone as safe as possible from any COVID outbreak,” added Burruss.
New for this year, all the action will be streamed live by MotorManiaTV. New also for this year will be the Mutt & Jeff Top 8. Six previous winners of the Mutt & Jeff races will face off against Burruss and Griffey in their own cars to see who is the best. For more information and results, visit www.muttandjeffpromotions.com. For directions and race track information, visit www.beaversprings.com.
This story was originally published on June 15, 2020. 
