John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute (26 April 1958 – 22 March 2021), styled Earl of Dumfries before 1993, was a Scottish peer and a racing driver, most notably winning the

1988 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 56th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 11 and 12 June 1988. It was also the fifth round of the World Sports-Prototype Championship season. Race The Porsches were able to turn up the turbo boost in q ...

. He did not use his title and preferred to be known solely as John Bute, although he had previously been called Johnny Dumfries before his accession to the Marquessate. The family home is Mount Stuart House on the

Isle of Bute The Isle of Bute ( sco, Buit; gd, Eilean Bhòid or '), known as Bute (), is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault. Formerly a constituent is ...

. He attended

Ampleforth College Ampleforth College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition located in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, it is situated in the groun ...

, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not finish the normal five years of study.

Life

Bute was born in Rothesay, Argyll and Bute, into one of Scotland's oldest aristocratic families, the son of Beatrice Nicola Grace Weld-Forester and

John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute, (27 February 1933 – 21 July 1993) was a Scottish peer, benefactor and patron of the arts. He was largely known either as Lord Bute or simply John Bute. Life John Crichton-Stuart was born in Mayfair ...

, and the descendant of the 18th-century Prime Minister, the 3rd Earl of Bute. Bute was heir to a large fortune, and turned his back on an expensive education at

and set about pursuing a career in motor racing. In 1984, Bute, then known as Johnny Dumfries, was the sensation of the F3 season, scoring 14 race victories on his way to winning, and completely dominating, the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seat ...

for Team BP (Dave Price Racing). He also finished runner-up to

Ivan Capelli Ivan Franco Capelli (born 24 May 1963) is an Italian former Formula One driver. He participated in 98 Grands Prix, debuting on 6 October 1985. He achieved three podiums, and scored a total of 31 championship points. From 1998 until 2017 he was a ...

in the European Formula Three Championship that year. In 1985, he graduated to the newly created

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backs ...

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become ...

Championship, initially competing for Onyx Race Engineering before switching to Lola Motorsport. It was a disappointing season, with a sixth-place finish in Vallelunga being the highlight of the year. In , he made his breakthrough into F1, and raced a single season for the JPS

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. Mor ...

. He was a late addition to the team, apparently as a result of

Ayrton Senna Ayrton Senna da Silva (; 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in , , and . Senna is one of three Formula One drivers from Brazil to win the World Championship and ...

not wanting

Derek Warwick Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick (born 27 August 1954) is a British former professional racing driver from England, who lives in Jersey. He raced for many years in Formula One, collecting four podiums but never winning a Grand Prix. He did, however, ...

as a teammate. He competed in 15 Grands Prix for Lotus (not qualifying at

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

), which used the turbocharged

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

engines and scored 3 championship points. During most of the season he was usually one of the midfield drivers, on par with the Tyrrell drivers

Martin Brundle Martin John Brundle (born 1 June 1959) is a British former racing driver, best known as a Formula One driver and as a commentator for ITV Sport from 1997 to 2008, the BBC from 2009 to 2011, and Sky Sports since 2012. Brundle contested the 1 ...

and

Philippe Streiff Philippe Streiff (26 June 1955 – 23 December 2022) was a French racing driver. He participated in 55 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 21 October 1984. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 11 championship points. A pre-season tes ...

. He was replaced for by the Japanese driver

Satoru Nakajima is a Japanese former racing driver. He is a five-time Japanese Top Formula champion, and was the first full-time Japanese Formula One driver. Accordingly, he is responsible for several firsts for Japanese drivers in Formula One, including bei ...

as part of Lotus's deal to use

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

engines from that season onwards. In 1988, Bute scored the biggest racing victory of his career when he won the Le Mans 24 Hours, driving a

Jaguar XJR-9 The Jaguar XJR-9 is a sports-prototype race car built by Jaguar for both FIA Group C and IMSA Camel GTP racing, debuting at the 1988 24 Hours of Daytona. Development An evolution of the design for the XJR-8, the XJR-9 was designed by Ton ...

for

Tom Walkinshaw Thomas Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw (14 August 1946 – 12 December 2010) was a British racing car driver from Scotland and the founder of the racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR). He was also involved in professional rugby union, as owner of ...

Silk Cut Silk Cut is a British brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Gallaher Group, a division of Japan Tobacco. The packaging is characterised by a distinctive stark white packet with the brand name in a purple, blue, red, silver, wh ...

Jaguar Team alongside Dutchman

Jan Lammers Jan Lammers (Johannes Antonius Lammers, Zandvoort, 2 June 1956) is a racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing h ...

and Englishman Andy Wallace. Bute also participated in the 1-hour endurance race in the 1988 British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park with fellow ex-F1 Briton

Guy Edwards Guy Richard Goronwy Edwards, QGM (born 30 December 1942) is a former racing driver from England. Best known for his sportscar and British Formula One career, as well as for brokering sponsorship deals, Edwards participated in 17 World Champion ...

for Andy Rouse's Kaliber Racing team in

Ford Sierra RS500 The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...

, finishing third overall and in Class A. He died of cancer in March 2021.

Wealth

Bute ranked 616th in the ''

Sunday Times Rich List 2008 The ''Sunday Times'' Rich List 2008 was published on 27 April 2008. Since 1989 the UK national Sunday newspaper ''The Sunday Times'' (sister paper to ''The Times'') has published an annual magazine supplement to the newspaper called the ''Sunda ...

'', with an estimated wealth of £125m. In the 2006 list, he ranked 26th in Scotland with £122m. He lived with his family in London and at the ancestral seat Mount Stuart House, south of

Rothesay Rothesay ( ; gd, Baile Bhòid ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which offers an onward rail ...

on the

. In December 2020 he was charged with breaching

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

restrictions for allegedly travelling to his Isle of Bute home from London. In 2007, the other family home

Dumfries House Dumfries House (Scottish Gaelic: ''Taigh Dhùn Phris'') is a Palladian country house located in the town of Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is within a large estate, around west of Cumnock. Noted for being one of the few such houses with ...

Cumnock Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie just ...

, Ayrshire, was sold to the nation for £45 million.

Marriages and children

In 1984, he married Carolyn E. R. Margaret "Freddy" Waddell, they were divorced in 1993. They had three children: * Lady Caroline Crichton-Stuart (b. 26 September 1984) * Lady Cathleen Crichton-Stuart (b. 14 September 1986) * John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, 8th Marquess of Bute (b. 21 December 1989) On the Isle of Bute in February 1999, he married his second wife, fashion designer Serena Solitaire Wendell, they had one child: * Lady Lola Affrica Crichton-Stuart (b. 23 June 1999)

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

( key)

Complete Formula One results

( key)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap in class - 1 point awarded all races) ‡ Endurance driver.

References

* "Burke's Peerage and Baronetage"

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crichton-Stuart, John 1958 births 2021 deaths 7 Scottish racing drivers Scottish Formula One drivers Team Lotus Formula One drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans winning drivers People from Rothesay, Bute People educated at Ampleforth College International Formula 3000 drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers British Roman Catholics 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics Scottish Roman Catholics World Sportscar Championship drivers British people of American descent British people of Dutch descent Livingston family Schuyler family Deaths from cancer in Scotland Porsche Motorsports drivers TOM'S drivers Jaguar Racing drivers David Price Racing drivers Ecurie Ecosse drivers