John Buffum

John Buffum (born October 4, 1943, in Wallingford, Connecticut) is the most successful U.S. rally driver ever, winning 11 national titles and 117 national championship events.

Career

From 1977 to 1980, when British Leyland dropped out of U.S. racing, he won both the SCCA ProRally series and the North America Rally Championships. In 1981, he competed with an Audi 80 and Peugeot 504, but they were not competitive compared to Rod Millen's factory Mazda RX-7 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 event, taking the 1983 Sachs Rally in West Germany and the 1984 Cyprus Rally, 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).

Buffum 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.

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 SportsCar 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.

Complete WRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 WDC Points 1973 Libra International Racing Ford Escort RS1600 MON SWE POR KEN MOR GRE POL FIN AUT ITA USA4 GBR FRA N/A N/A 1974 Libra International Racing Ford Escort RS1600 MON SWE POR KEN GRE FIN ITA CAN USARet GBR FRA N/A N/A 1976 English of Bournemouth Ford Escort RS1600 MON SWE POR KEN GRE MOR FIN ITA FRA GBRRet N/A N/A 1977 British Leyland Triumph TR7 MON SWE POR KEN NZL GRE FIN CAN4 ITA FRA GBR N/A N/A 1978 British Leyland Triumph TR7 MON SWE KEN POR GRE FIN CANDSQ ITA CIV FRA N/A N/A Spantape / Louvercurtain Ford Escort RS1800 GBRRet 1979 British Leyland Triumph TR8 MON SWE POR KEN GRE NZL FIN CAN ITA FRA GBRRet CIV NC 0 1980 British Leyland Triumph TR7 V8 MON SWE POR KEN GRE ARG FIN NZL ITA FRA GBRRet CIV NC 0 1981 John Buffum Triumph TR7 V8 MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE ARG BRA FIN ITA CIV GBRRet NC 0 1982 Audi Sport Audi Quattro MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE NZL BRA FIN ITA CIV GBR12 NC 0 1983 BF Goodrich Motorsport Audi Quattro A1 MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE NZL ARG FIN ITA CIV GBR5 28th 6 1984 BF Goodrich Motorsport Audi Quattro A2 MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE5 NZL ARG FIN ITA CIV GBRRet 24th 8 1986 Audi Sport Audi Sport Quattro S1 MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR USA3 18th 12 1987 Libra Racing Audi Coupé Quattro MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE USARet NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR NC 0 1988 Libra Racing Audi Coupé Quattro MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE USA3 NZL ARG FIN CIV ITA GBR 20th 12 1993 MIT Motorsport Honda Civic SiR MON SWE POR KEN FRA GRE ARG NZL FIN AUSRet ITA ESP GBR NC 0 2000 John Buffum Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V MON SWE KEN POR26 ESP ARG GRE NZL FIN CYP FRA ITA AUS GBR NC 0