John Buffum interview with RallyBuzz: JB discusses rallying in the US, Pastrana and Block, his upcoming participation on the McRae Stages and plenty more besides
American rally legend John Buffum chats to RallyBuzz in a recent interview. JB discusses US rallying in general, where it has come to and where it is going. Winning the Cyprus Rally on road tyres and beating the best in the ERC at the time. He talks about Travis Pastrana and Ken Block and what their contribution has been to Rally America and if they will make it at WRC level.
Also, he tells RallyBuzz about his participation on the upcoming Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally, how it came about and what Colin meant to the rallying community in America. John also touches on Niall McShea's recent Rally America victory and his X-Games appearance next week.
John Buffum was American National Champion a record 11 times and is also the most winningest US driver of all time with 117 victories in US championship events. John was also an accomplished racing driver taking part in various sports car races throughout his career. He still runs Libra Racing and continues to organise and compete (more so in the co-drivers seat) on rallies to this day.
John Buffum interview with RallyBuzz:
The quattro had slightly modified tyres on the RAC 1984 but they were full road tyres on Cyprus that year
1986 Olympus and JB 3rd o/a on the WRC qualifier
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Posted at the request of Ivan Orisek
Gentlemen:
John Buffum is our hero and we love him. However, he is connected with Rally
America and therefore his opinions are somewhat biased. He also made several
outright errors in the interview:
1. United States Rally Championship, Inc. (USRC) http://www.usrallychampionship.com is
an independent organization and it is not \”owned by NASA\”.
2. USRC events are not \”smaller\” than Rally America events. In fact, it may
be a thorn in John Buffum\’s side that the USRC Rally New York USA 2008 was a
bigger event than John\’s Rally America New England Forest Rally 2008. In
addition, a leading competitor who participated in Rally New York USA and is a
regular in Rally America events went on the record with saying that Rally New
York USA 2008 may have possibly been the best rally in America ever.
3. USRC (and NASA) grew out of the dissatisfaction with the way the sport of
rallying was run in the United States by SCCA. USRC (and NASA) introduced in the
US the international FIA rules and signage, proper timing and regrouping,
overnight Parc Ferme, full reconnaissance and pace notes, etc. For illustration,
amusingly, Rally America, which took over the SCCA championship, still to this
day prohibits pace notes on their events.
4. Thus, USRC (and NASA) contributed significantly to the development of the
sport in the US. In addition, they were instrumental in establishing a number of
new, excellent events in the areas where rallying never existed before,
including Rally New York events that take place two times a year merely ninety
miles northwest of New York City.
With best regards,
Ivan Orisek
President
Rally New York, Ltd.
Phone 845-794-4096
Fax 845-794-4098
Eurorally@aol.com
Skype: Eurorally1
2488 Route 42
Forestburgh, New York 12777