Joe Buzzetta

Porsche 906E with the Buzzetta competed in sports car races in the USA together with Scooter Patrick in 1967

Joseph "Joe" Buzzetta (born December 30, 1936 in New York City ) is an American entrepreneur and former racing driver .

Career

Joe Buzzetta was the classic "second man" in sports car racing in the 1960s. He was often the teammate of star drivers and is often forgotten when mentioning successes. Buzzetta began his career in US street sports in the late 1950s, where tuned sports cars were driven. In 1961 he made his debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring in an Austin Healey Sprite . With partner Glenn Carlson , he finished the race in 15th place overall. His best placement in Sebring - after finishing fourth overall in 1966 in the Porsche 906 as a partner of Hans Herrmann and Gerhard Mitter - was third in 1969 in the Porsche 908 with Rolf Stommelen and Kurt Ahrens . Buzzetta had long been a works driver at Porsche .

In 1962 and 1963 he won a privately owned Porsche 718 RSK in his class of the national racing series of the Sports Car Club of America , in which Roger Penske and Bob Holbert also took part. By winning the 500 km race in Bridgehampton of the World Sports Car Championship alongside Bill Wuesthoff , Buzzetta qualified for higher tasks. In 1965 and 1966, he received a contract as a Porsche works driver, but only drove the US sports car races in Sebring and Daytona . Otherwise, he first took part in an Elva Mk.7 with a Porsche engine, and later in a Porsche 906 in the SCCA's highest sports car championship. In 1967 and 1968 he also drove in Europe. His greatest success was the overall victory in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring in 1967 with Udo Schütz in a Porsche 910 . In 1968 there was still fourth place at the Nürburgring, this time with Jochen Neerpasch as a partner.

Buzzetta was less successful at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , where he retired at two starts with a technical defect.

He then left professional motorsport, but remained loyal to motorsport with some participation in historic races. Today, Buzzetta heads the Competition Automotive Group , a chain of car dealerships of various brands in New York.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 910	Udo Schütz	failure	Engine failure
1968	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 908	Scooter Patrick	failure	suspension

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1961	Donald Healey	Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite	Glenn Carlson		Rank 15
1964	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 356B 2000 GS GT	Ben Pon		Rank 10 and class win
1965	Porsche Automobile Co.	Porsche 904 GTS	Ben Pon		Rank 6
1966	Porsche System Engineering	Porsche 906	Hans Herrmann		4th place and class win
1967	Porsche car	Porsche 906	Peter Gregg		Rank 7
1968	Porsche Automobile Co.	Porsche 907 2.2	Ludovico Scarfiotti		failure	Cylinder damage
1969	Porsche System Engineering Ltd.	Porsche 908/02	Rolf Stommelen	Kurt Ahrens	Rank 3

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1961	Donald Healey	Austin-Healey Sprite	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
			15th
1962	Competition imports	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
															DNF
1963	Joe Buzzetta	Porsche 356	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
																								7th
1964	Porsche Ed Wechsler	Porsche 356 Porsche 904	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
				10																1
1965	Porsche	Porsche 904	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
				6th
1966	Porsche	Porsche 904 Porsche 906	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			7th	4th
1967	Porsche	Porsche 906 Porsche 910	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				7th				1	DNF
1968	Porsche	Porsche 907 Porsche 908	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
			3	DNF				4th		DNF		DNF
1969	Porsche Porsche Holding	Porsche 908	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
			DNF	3							3

Web links

Commons : Joe Buzzetta  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Joe Buzzetta at Racing Sports Cars