John Buffum (born October 4, 1943 in

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...

) is the most successful U.S.

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sport ...

driver ever, winning 11 national titles and 117 national championship events. From 1977 to 1980, when

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

dropped out of U.S. racing, he won both the

SCCA ProRally SCCA ProRally was an American rally racing series, run by the Sports Car Club of America from 1973 until 2004. The SCCA discontinued it for 2005, due to concerns about safety and insurance. It allowed Rally America to replace it, utilizing most o ...

series and the North America Rally Championships. In 1981, he competed with an

Audi 80 The Audi 80 is a compact executive car produced by the Audi subdivision of the Volkswagen Group across four generations from 1966 to 1996. It shared its platform with the Volkswagen Passat from 1973 to 1986 and was available as a saloon, and s ...

and

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, but they were not competitive compared to

Rod Millen Rodney K. "Rod" Millen (born 22 March 1951) is a New Zealand racing driver, vehicle designer, and business owner. He has competed in numerous genres of motorsports, including rally racing, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touri ...

's factory

Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car that was manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 until 2002 across three generations, all of which made use of a compact, lightweight Wankel rotary engine. ...

rally cars. In addition to his North American schedule, Buffum cherry-picked rallies in Europe, where he became the first and still the only American to win a

European Rally Championship The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship) is an automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship has b ...

event, taking the 1983 Sachs Rally in West Germany and the 1984

Cyprus Rally The Cyprus Rally is a rallying competition held yearly in Cyprus since 1970. The event is run by the Cyprus Automobile Association and is based in the city of Limassol (Lemesos). It is run on the winding roads of the nearby mountains of Troödo ...

, both with Audi Quattro. He also ran the 1969 Monte Carlo Rally in a Porsche 911. Buffum is the only driver in the world to compete in at least one World Rally Championship event in five continuous decades (1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's and 2000). He also helped restart the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race in 1990 and served as Chief Steward of the hillclimb from 1990 to 2000, again in 2011 and again in 2017.Press Release 2/12/02, Mt. Washington Hillclimb, Rally Racing News
/ref> Since the late 1980s, Buffum has owned and managed Libra Racing based in Colchester, Vermont. He has been responsible for building cars for the Hyundai Factory rally programme in the US and has worked alongside Vermont Sports Car on their Subaru Factory programme as a consultant. In 2009, he built the first open class Mitsubishi Evolution X, to campaign in the Rally America national series and the Canadian Rally series. In 2014, Buffum was elected to the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.

References

''Rally Racing News'
John Buffum biography
Retrieved December 31, 2004.

External links

Libra Racing, John Buffum's company.JohnBuffum.com - John Buffum's homepage.In Like a Lamb...Out LIke a Lion
Champion co-driver and former National PRO Rally Manager, Tom Grimshaw, tells John Buffum's story and the course of rally racing in the United States.
2006 SCCA Hall of Fame Class Announced
1943 births Living people People from Wallingford, Connecticut World Rally Championship drivers American rally drivers Trans-Am Series drivers Racing drivers from Connecticut {{US-autoracing-bio-stub Audi Sport drivers