VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Colchester

Motor Sports

Inducted 2014

A world class legend in auto racing, John Buffum went on to become the most successful and most dominant American rally car driver in history, winning 11 United States titles and 117 national championship events while driving Audis, Peugeots, Mazda among other models. 

He started his rally car career while a Middlebury College student in 1964. Born and raised in Connecticut, he settled in Vermont after college and he got a taste of the sport while stationed in the Army in Germany. 

Later in his career, Buffum became the first and only American to win a European championship event, capturing the 1983 Sachs Rally in West Germany and the 1984 ERC Rally on Cyprus. After a second place finish in 1976, he won his first Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) ProRally title in 1977, the first of four straight national championships. 

He retired as a driver in 1988 but became the SCCA PRO Rally series manager, helping the sport maintain its stature through some lean years. He also helped restart the Mount Washington hill-climb auto race in 1990 and also won the Rally of Incas in Peru in South America in 1995.  

Buffum formed Libra Racing in the early 1970s and to this day manages and owns the firm in Colchester. He was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2006.