John Gullo who prefers to go by “Johnny”

Born in Buffalo, New York in 1965, Johnny spent his first 13 years growing up in Niagara Falls. In 1978 he moved away from the lovely Buffalo weather to Utah. There he finished High School and ran his families Horse Stable with 30 head of show horses. He would train them for jumping, western and English riding as well as chariot racing. Later, he joined his father in helping him run his Burger King Franchise, which after many years purchased his own Franchise and owns several restaurants himself.

In 1987 years ago he married his wife Jeri. Then one day after having our two kids, they went to a Demo Derby and his wife was hooked. For the next year Johnny built cars for her, and she did quite well. After that he started building for both of them. Over the next several years there were a lot of derbies and two children were a welcome addition. Now as a family affair they continued driving over the years.

Back in 1999, Johnny and Jim “Gumby” Simko joined forces and started Stirrin’ Dirt Racing, with the goal of giving the drivers what they deserved: bigger payouts for their hard work and showmanship. So in 1999 they had the first Derby in Utah that had a $10,000 purse. Since that time, every promoter and fair board has had to raise their stakes to keep up, giving the drivers what they wanted large payouts throughout the state.

Since then Stirrin’ dirt has ventured into promoting many demolition derbies, monster truck shows and other events. They also have moved into stunt driving for movies, music videos and TV shows as well as providing cars and locations for photo shoots and other projects.

Johnny is an accomplished driver who has been using his hobby of building derby cars and driving in derbies to rehab himself back to health after a stroke in 2006 that left his left side paralyzed. Along with his Wife Jeri, Son Dalton, Daughter Jordan, he and all his family continue to drive in Utah and surrounding states keeping it a family affair.