MIDLAND, Michigan-- John Buffum collected another first place trophy at the Michigan International PRO Rally here this weekend, but the defending champion wasn't smiling as broadly as he might. Rod Millen finished second, and still holds the series lead. Each has finished 1 or 2 at every event so far except for Buffum dropping out of the Olympus Rally when his engine went away. It cost him crucial points and has allowed Millen to keep smiling.

The series lead was all New Zealander Rod Millen had to be happy about in the woods of Michigan. He began experiencing problems almost immediately with his exotic Mazda RX7 with 4WD. For a few stages he limped along with only two working gears. At the next service, his crew changed the transmission in 23 min. 46 sec., according to the crowd of observers. They still were not getting sufficient power, so an engine swap was done at the meal halt in a mere 1 hr. 11 min. After that, things went smoothly, but it was a hard run for second.

In the Standard Productiun class, the battle was intense all. the way through, with the top three cars (Boyce's VW GTI, Light's Olds and Shepherd's Dodge) trading the lead back and forth, never falling more than one minute apart during the long rally. When it was over, Canadian Walter Boyce was the winner by .66 minutes over Doug Shepherd who was only .20 ahead of Guy Light. Richard Kelsey took an easy win in the GT Production class.

The dramatic occurrence of the rally was Erik Zenz's Saab when it rolled and burned to the ground on Stage 12.. Fortunately, both Zenz and co-driver David Stone got out before the car was totally engulfed in flames. Emergency vehicles arrived shortly, but the Saab was totally destroyed.

Next event on the calendar is the Susquehannock Trail PRO Rally in Wellsboro, Penn. on June 8-9. For more information on that event and the SCCA PRO Rally series, contact the SCCA national office at (303) 779-6625.