Buffum rose to national prominence from 1977 to 1980, a period in which British Leyland's withdrawal from U.S. racing opened up the competitive landscape. During those years he won both the SCCA ProRally series and the North America Rally Championships, establishing himself as the dominant force in American rallying.
In 1981 he campaigned an Audi 80 and a Peugeot 504, but neither car could match the pace of Rod Millen's factory-supported Mazda RX-7 rally cars. Buffum had also competed in Europe as early as 1969, when he ran the Monte Carlo Rally in a Porsche 911.
Alongside his North American schedule, Buffum selectively contested European events and made history in the process. He became the first — and remains the only — American to win a European Rally Championship round, claiming victory at the 1983 Sachs Rally in West Germany and again at the 1984 Cyprus Rally, both times driving an Audi Quattro. These results gave him a unique distinction in international rallying, achieved at a time when European rally competition was at its most fiercely contested.
Buffum's longevity in the sport produced one of its most unusual records: he competed in at least one World Rally Championship event in each of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000. No other driver anywhere in the world has competed in WRC events across five consecutive decades.
In 1990 Buffum helped restart the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race, the famed New Hampshire speed event on the slopes of the highest peak in the northeastern United States. He served as Chief Steward of the hillclimb from 1990 to 2000, and returned to that role again in 2011 and 2017.
Since the late 1980s Buffum has owned and operated Libra Racing, based in Colchester, Vermont. Through Libra he built cars for the Hyundai factory rally programme in the United States and worked alongside Vermont SportsCar as a consultant on their Subaru factory programme. In 2009 he constructed the first open-class Mitsubishi Evolution X to campaign in the Rally America national series and the Canadian Rally series, demonstrating that his technical involvement in American rallying extended well beyond his driving years.
Buffum was inducted into the 2006 SCCA Hall of Fame class. In 2014 he was elected to the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame, recognising both his achievements as a driver and his decades of service to the sport through team management, event stewardship, and car preparation.
His 11 national titles and 117 national championship event victories remain the benchmark for American rally achievement, a record that has not been approached since the peak of his career.
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