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To motor racing people he was Johnny Dumfries, winner of the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours for Jaguar, 1984 British Formula 3 champion and F1 team mate of Ayrton Senna at Lotus through 1986.
His real name was John Colum Crichton-Stuart, his title was the 7th Marquess of Bute and post-racing he went by the name of John Bute. He has passed away aged just 62 after a short illness.
“The indomitable spirit and energy which Johnny brought to his life will be greatly missed, and the immense warmth and love with which he embraced his family,” said a family statement.
The ‘Johnny Dumfries’ name was a nom-de-plume as he didn’t want the racing world to know of his aristocratic background and wealth.
The motor racing link was established by his uncle Charlie Crichton-Stuart, who raced in the junior categories in the 1960s and was very much part of the Piers Courage/Frank Williams gang on that time.
When Johnny decided to try his hand at the sport in British Formula Ford in the ‘80s, he took a job at Williams as a van driver and general gofer and only Frank and a few others knew his real identity. He also claimed to be a painter and decorator at the time, but whether that part of the back story was real or fictional was never firmly established.
But he was quick. He made the move into British F3 in 1983, the year of the epic Senna/Brundle fight for the title. His Ralt RT3 ‘red rocket’ was run in low-budget circumstances by former F3 racer Dave Morgan but he regularly showed a great turn of speed even if that wasn’t always converted into results.
He’d shown enough potential to be taken on by the BP-backed Dave Price Racing’s F3 team as Brundle’s replacement for ’84. He proceeded to dominate the British championship, winning 10 rounds from 17. He and Price also tried their hand in the European championship and came close to winning that too, finishing runner-up to Ivan Capelli and ahead of Gerhard Berger.
A move into F3000 for 1985 was a disappointment after such a stellar F3 season, though he got his toe in the F1 water as a Ferrari test driver. For ’86 he graduated to F1 fully with John Player Team Lotus as Senna’s team-mate.
Players always preferred a British driver as part of its marketing and after Elio de Angelis left the team at the end of ’85 following a difficult season alongside Senna, Lotus was all set to sign Derek Warwick.
Senna, feeling that Lotus could not prepare two frontrunning cars, vetoed that plan, feeling that Warwick would not be suitable for the number two role. Players and Senna settled on Dumfries as an acceptable alternative.
The turbocharged F1 cars of the time, with up to 1500bhp in qualifying, were probably a step too far too soon. Furthermore, Dumfries was there very much as Senna’s number two.
So his form was not great – his best result was a fifth place in Hungary – and he was dropped at the end of the year, as the team’s new Honda relationship insisted upon a Senna/Satoru Nakajima pairing for ’87.
Dumfries continued to carve out a good frontline racing career however and was recruited by Tom Walkinshaw as part of the Jaguar Le Mans squad, winning the ’88 event in partnership with Jan Lammers and Andy Wallace.
He would also drive for Sauber and Toyota in sportscar racing but stepped back from the sport in the early ‘90s to run the Scottish estate and take up painting.
