John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute

Former F1 driver


image-size =
pixels =
Name = "Johnny Dumfries"
Nationality = flagicon|UK British
Years = 1986
Team(s) = Lotus
Races = 16 (15 starts)
Championships = 0
Wins = 0
Podiums = 0
Points = 3
Poles = 0
Fastest laps = 0
First race = 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix
First win =
Last win =
Last race = 1986 Australian Grand Prix
Le Mans drivers
Years = 24hLM|1987 – 24hLM|1991
Teams = Kouros Racing
Silk Cut Jaguar/TWR
Toyota Team Tom's
Courage Compétition
Best Finish = 1st (24hLM|1988)
Class Wins = 1 (24hLM|1988)

John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute (born 26 April 1958 in Rothesay, Isle of Bute), styled Earl of Dumfries before 1993 and from this courtesy title usually known as Johnny Dumfries, is a Scottish peer and a former racing driver. He does not use his title and prefers to be known solely as John Bute.cite news| url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=624| title=Race to save Dumfries House| author=Georgina Adam | date=26 April 2007| work=The Art Newspaper| accessdate=2007-07-13] The family home is Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute.

Racing career

Born into one of Scotland's oldest aristocratic families and the descendant of a British Prime Minister, Johnny Dumfries was heir to a large fortune. He turned his back on an expensive education and set about entering motor racing.cite web| url=http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-dumjoh.html| title=Drivers:Johnny Dumfries| accessdate=2007-07-13]

He won the 1984 British Formula Three Championship. He raced a single season in Formula 1, 1986, competing in 16 Grands Prix for Team Lotus, which used Renault engines. His teammate for that season was the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna. Dumfries scored a total of 3 championship points. [cite web| url=http://www.forix.com/8w/dumfries.html| title=Painter-cum-racer| accessdate=2007-07-13] He was replaced for F1|1987 by the Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima as part of Lotus' deal to use Honda engines from that season onwards.

In 1988, Dumfries won the 24 hours of Le Mans driving a Silk Cut-sponsored Jaguar XJR-9 [cite web| url=http://www.skyscraperpicture.com/f1pictures/dumfries.htm| title=Johnny Dumfries| accessdate=2007-07-13] and partnered in the team by Andy Wallace and Jan Lammers.

Wealth

He ranked 616th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, with an estimated wealth of £125m. (26th in Scotland with £122m in 2006)

He lives with his family in London and at Mount Stuart House, 5 miles south of Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. In 2007 Dumfries House in Cumnock, Ayrshire was purchased for the nation for £45 million. [cite news| work=BBC News| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6244662.stm| title=Historic mansion sold to nation| date=27 June 2007| accessdate=2007-07-13]

Ancestry

Crichton-Stuart is the son of the 6th Marquess of Bute and the former Beatrice Weld-Forester, and is a descendant of King William IV of the United Kingdom, by his mistress Dorothy Jordan. William IV was Queen Victoria's uncle, this means that the Marquess of Bute is a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He attended Ampleforth College, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not graduate.

In 1984, he married Carolyn Waddell and they were divorced in 1993. They have three children:
*The Lady Caroline Crichton-Stuart (b. September 26 1984)
*The Lady Cathleen Crichton-Stuart (b. September 14 1986)
*John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, The Earl of Dumfries (b. 21 December 1989)

He married Serena Solitaire Wendell in 1999 and they have one child, a daughter:

*The Lady Lola Affrica Crichton-Stuart b. 1999

Complete Formula One results

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Footnotes