Dumfries, Johnny (Marquis of Bute)

[marcus]

I was watching a bit of the 1986 F1 season review the other day to fill in some time and as we know Johnny Dumfries drove for the Lotus team that year next to Ayrton Senna.

I have heard that he was some kind of royalty of some kind (an Earl perhaps?).

[Peter Mallett]

Johnny is the Earl of Bute. As such he organises a historic event on the Isle of Bute annually. Its getting to be the Scottish equivalent of the Goodwood FoS by all accounts.

A much underrated driver who had good things ahead of him. He gave it up to run the family pile.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
Johnny is the Earl of Bute

As son and heir of the Marquis of Bute, Hon John Crichton-Stuart had the title of Earl of Dumfries, but raced under the name of Johnny Dumfries. When his father died, Johnny became Marquis of Bute

[simon drabble]

there was some time lapse between him giving up and moving up north, sadly I think his retirement was more to do with not getting a competitive ride in F1. If my memory serves me right James Hunt was always very dismissive of him which I think was a rare lack of judgement on the late great Hunts side.

[Adam43]

Johnny, he is a Le Mans winner to boot!

[KA]

Originally posted by simon drabble
there was some time lapse between him giving up and moving up north, sadly I think his retirement was more to do with not getting a competitive ride in F1.

He did have quite a long and successful spell in sportscars with Jaguar (as Adam mentioned, remember the 1988 Le Mans win?) and Toyota between the end of his F1 career and retiring.....

[Aysedasi]

Not that long at Jaguar...

And not very successful at Toyota either......

Remember that incident from the 1990 (?) Le Mans when he shunted the Toyota at the Ford Chicane and then when he finally got the car going he drove off with a camera attached to his car.....

[simon drabble]

you are absolutely right about sportscar racing including the excellant victory in a Jaguar (might not have been for long but got a good result!) I was just referring to F1

[ghinzani]

Johnny Dumfries was good, he cleaned up in British F3 in 84 and was totally dominant - he then was supposed to become Ferrari F1 tester after just missing out on a Brabham F1 ride for 85. He also would have been Euro F3 Champion if Ivan Capelli's Coloni Ralt wasn't running bent.

[Aysedasi]

I well remember watching Johnny in Brit F3 in 84 and, of course, his greatest triumph in 88.

[Dan Rear]

Must admit I always thought Dumfries was a bit overrated. OK he dominated in F3 in 84, but opposition was pretty weak, compared to later years, and earlier ones come to that. Also remember he was being run by Dave Price, who I've heard had rather 'special' VW engines. Johnny didn't do too well in F3000 the next year, neither with JPS in 86. In sportscars, well he won Le Mans, but had Lammers and Wallace to assist, then didn't do a lot with Toyota in 89.

Sorry Johnny-fans !

[KA]

Originally posted by Dan Rear
Johnny didn't do too well in F3000 the next year, neither with JPS in 86.

I don't think he was ever going to do much at Lotus anyway- if I remember the story correctly, wasn't he signed after Senna had allegedly vetoed them signing Derek Warwick, becasue he thought having Warwick in the team would threaten his own position?- (I think there was something about him thinking the team couldn't run two equally competitive cars, and Warwick's presence would encourage them to try and do so?)- so they signed Dumfries as a definite no2 driver instead.

Thinking back to his sportscar career, from memory he was usually pretty quick in the Toyota, but I think I remember him being a bit accident-prone, and the car running out of fuel a lot- the Toyota V8 always struggled with the Group C fuel consumption formula

[JNWRF01]

I think you;ll find F3 in 84 was pretty strong - amongst others Gerhard Berger. F3000 he was in the lola - which should have had handles at the back so you could convert it back to its original design - a wheelbarrow.

As for special VW engines, Russell Spence ran the same motors the following year - and the series was won by Gugelmin with customer motors.

I am not saying he was the best driver ever - but not as bad as your making out.

[Dan Rear]

Didn't he have a couple of goes in the works Onyx March before the Lola wheelbarrow? As for F3 in the UK in 84, well I remember the likes of Hytten/Abella/Tony Trevor/Berg/Spence (in his 1st F3 season, not many others. In Europe I agree it was stronger, Byrne/Berger/Nielsen/Capelli/Langes, all reasonable or better drivers.

[chunterer]

Yes he drove for Mike Earle in the first 2-3 rounds. Qualified near the front at Silverstone but spun off in the dreadful conditions early on. A race dominated by the uber talented Mike Thackeell.

Johnny as we now know unfortunately died in March this year.