CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- John Buffum of South Burlington, Vt., drove his Audi Quattro to its second victory this season in the Sports Car Club of America's PRO Rally Series. Buffum and co-driver Doug Shepherd of Livonia, Mich., had a seven minute advantage over the rest of the 74 car field by the end of the 300 mile Budweiser PRO Rally.
Second in the rain-soaked event was the local Columbus team of Mark Hardymon and Tom Drake in their Mazda RX-7. Hardymon's win picked up the slack for Mazda as factory driver Rod Millen crashed his RX-7 on the ninth of the rally's 24 stages while standing second.
The battle of the night, however, was in the Production Class where three cars finished within a minute of one another. Gene Henderson was the leader in the class in his AMC Eagle SX/4 through the first two thirds of the 12-hour rally. Clive Smith was running a bit faster in his BFGoodrich Datsun 2OOSX, but he spun on the third stage and tore a tire from the rim. They lost two minutes changing it and played catch-up for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, Sandy Liversidge and Steve Nowicki had a pitch duel going and were running only .04 minutes apart at about midnight.
Some seven stages from the end, Henderson's Eagle began to have engine trouble and lost one cylinder. That allowed Smith to slip by and win the class by half a minute from Liversidge's Saab with Nowicki another half minute back. Smith was fourth overall.
Bruno Kreibich drove a great rally in his Porsche 911 and finished third overall. Coupled with Hardymon's second, this was the best finish by private entries in the past two seasons.
There was a long list of contenders who did not make it to the finish. Besides Millen, who rolled his RX-7 on stage 9, there was Jon Woodner who slammed his Peugeot 504 Coupe into a tree less than a mile into the first stage. Guy Light got a bit further, but rolled his Olds Omega on the same stage. Gary Eaton had ignition trouble with his Peugeot 505 and dropped out about halfway through the event. Niall Leslie's Dodge Colt began to lose its engine early on and they shut the car off about the half- way point.
Canadian Production Champ Walter Boyce made his debut in the Firestone Ford Escort and drove a conservative rally finishing seventh in the Production Class, behind John Crawford's Dodge Shelby.
In all, 47 of the original 74 starters were around to collect the $7,000 purse, as well as several thousand dollars in contingency money, which was passed out at the awards ceremony.
There is no rest for the PRO Rally crowd. They have to get the cars unbent, re- painted, fixed and transported to Washington state in time for the two events there April 9 and 16. The Nor'wester and the Olympus International will draw big entries and promise to be the debuts of at least three new cars, among them a new RX-7 for Millen with 4wd and a new Quattro for Buffum.
EVENT: Budweiser Forest EVENT CONDUCTED BY: Ohio Valley Region, SCCA
LOCATION: Chillicothe,Ohio LENGTH: 295 miles, 95 stage miles
DATE: March 26-27, 1983 WEATHER: Cool , rain
ENTRANTS: 74 FINISHERS: 47 TERRAIN: Forest, hills
FIN. CHAMP. MFG.
POS. DRIVER/CO-DRIVER/HOMETOWN CAR SCORE POINTS POINTS
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1. John Buffum, S. Burlington, Vt. Audi Quattro 104.84 20 20
Doug Shepherd, Livonia, Mich. 20
2. Mark Hardymon, Powell, Ohio Mazda RX-7 111.05 15 15
Tom Drake, Columbus, Ohio 15
3. Bruno Kreibich, Ridgewood, N.J. Porsche 911 113.93 12 12
Clark Bond, Bay City, Mich. 12
4.(1P) Clive Smith, Calgary, Alberta Datsun 2OOSX 115.30 10 10
Bruce Davis, Akron, Ohio 10
5.(2P) Sandy Liversidge, Jericho, Vt. Saab 99 115.85 8 8
Jim Blumenfeld, Weston, Mass. 8
6.(3P) Steve Nowicki, New Berlin, Wis. Plymouth 116.34 6 6
Ty Holmquist, Mission Viejo, Cal if. Arrow 6
7. Dan Coughnour, Englewood, Ohio Berrien 117.72 4
Ray Folger, Dayton, Ohio Buggy 4
8.(4P) Cal Landau, Coraopolis, Pa. Plymouth 118.04 3
Karen Landau, Coraopolis, Pa. Turismo 3
9. Jim Flaningan, Columbus, Ohio Toyota 119.90 2
Jill Hall, Columbus, Ohio Corolla 2
1O.(5P) Erik Zenz, West Allis, Wis. Saab 99 120.27 1
Lawson Smith, Fayetteville, N.Y. 1
PRODUCTION CLASS WINNERS
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1. Clive Smith, Calgary, Alberta Datsun 2OOSX 115.30 20 20
Bruce Davis, Akron, Ohio 20
2. Sandy Liversidge, Jericho, Vt. Saab 99 115.85 15 15
Jim Blumenfeld, Weston, Mass. 15
3. Steve Nowicki, New Berlin, Wis. Plymouth 116.34 12 12
Ty Holoquist, Mission Viejo, Calif. Arrow 12
SEED WINNERS
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FIA & Seed 1 - John Buffum/Doug Shepherd Seed4 -Dan Coughnour/Ray Folger
Seed 2 - Mark Hardymon/Tom Drake Seed5 -Jim Flaningan/Jill Hall
Seed 3 - Sandy Liversidge/Jim Blumenfeld Seed6 -Bill Byassee/Kim Byassee
UNITED STATES RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER TWO EVENTS
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DRIVER (Current Car) PRODUCTION DRIVER (Current Car)
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1. John Buffum, Audi 40 1. Steve Nowicki, Plymouth 32
2. Mark Hardymon, Mazda 25 2. Calvin Landau, Plymouth 22
3. Rod Millen, Mazda 15 3. Clive Smith, Datsun 20
CO-DRIVER PRODUCTION CO-DRIVER
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1. Doug Shepherd 40 1. Karen Landau 22
2. Tom Drake 25 2. Brian Berg 20
3. Mike Parris 15 Bruce Davis 20
MANUFACTURER PRODUCTION MANUFACTURER
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1. Audi 40 1. Plymouth 32
2. Mazda 30 2. Datsun 20
3. Datsun 16 3. Dodge 16