JOHNNY DUMFRIES TRIBUTE 1958-2021

SALUTING THE VIBRANT SCOT WHO RACED F1 AND GAVE JAGUAR A LE MANS VICTORY

JAGUAR'S 1988 LE MANS WINNER SALUTED

JOHNNY DUMFRIES WAS JAGUAR'S cute Scottish sprite of a racing driver. Tall, slim with boyish good looks, on June 12, 1988, he partnered Dutchman Jan Lammers and Englishman Andy Wallace to put Jaguar back into the Le Mans-winning records for the first time since 1957. That race is probably the most revered British win there of all time in terms of crowd passion.

At the time of the win Wallace was 27 years old, Lammers 32 and Dumfries 30. That's why it came as a complete shock when it was announced he had died of cancer aged just 62 on March 22, 2021.

We observed Johnny up close working in 1988, '89, '90, and '91 at Le Mans, Browns Lane, and Sandown. He could be a little reserved and possibly shy - but always pleasant and cordial.

That's almost certainly because he was hiding an important other life. He was not Johnny Dumfries at all, but John Crichton-Stuart, the 7th Marquess of Bute. He never wanted favors, and at the time of his passing introduced himself simply as 'John Bute'.

He is one of a surprising number of titled figures who have raced with success including Rhineland’s Wolfgang von Trips, nicknamed ‘Taffy’, and Sir Henry Birkin, a Third Baronet.

Johnny is mostly remembered on the track for a turbulent year as Ayrton Senna's Lotus F1 teammate in 1986, and of course, the Jaguar win in France. Dumfries was a Scottish aristocracy and the heir to a very large fortune estimated at more than $200 million.