Jim Crawford dies at 54.

Scottish born former Formula One, Can-Am and Indycar driver Jim Crawford, who team owner John Menard calls "the bravest man I ever knew," has died near his Florida home aged 54.

Crawford, who was born in Dunfermline and made two Grand Prix starts for the John Player Team Lotus squad in 1975, retired from racing after the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and became a fishing-boat captain in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area.

Crawford began his racing career in England, mainly in the Formula Atlantic Championship although a testing deal with Colin Chapman's legendary outfit led to GP outings at Silverstone and Monza in 1975. Sadly no more F1 opportunities came his way and in the early 1980's Crawford moved his racing activities to America.

After entering the struggling Can-Am series from his Texas racing base, Crawford made his Indycar debut in the inaugural CART Long Bach event in 1984 and finished an outstanding fourth in an outdated Theodore, he came to Indianapolis for the first time later that year and although he passed his Indianapolis 500 rookie test he failed to qualify for the race. He went on to take further Indycar starts that year at the Meadowlands complex and Phoenix.

Crawford finally qualified for Indy the following year driving for John Wysard and went on to start a total of eight events in 1985 In 21 career Indycar starts, Crawford qualified for no less than eight Indianapolis 500's and had a best finish of sixth in 1988 driving Kenny Bernstein's Buick. In that race, Crawford was third with six laps to go when he had to make a lengthy pit stop that dropped him back three positions.

A popular driver with both fans and the media, Crawford showed his courage during his recovery from a qualifying crash in 1987. He took the green flag and drove his ARS Buick into the first turn. The car hit the wall with terrific force, with Crawford suffering severe injuries to both legs that required 12 months of rehabilitation. Crawford still used a cane the next May when he earned his best finish.

In 1989, Crawford set the one- and four-lap qualifying speeds for a turbocharged stock-block engine at 222.069 and 221.450 mph, respectively. He started fourth and was running fourth when he was sidelined by a broken driveline after 135 laps.

Then in 1992, Crawford clicked off an unofficial track record lap of 233.433 mph.

He drove an Ilmor-Chevrolet in his final race, the 1993 Indianapolis 500, and finished 24th. He failed to qualify in both 1994 and 1995, driving a year-old Reynard 94I-Ford XB for current IRL team boss Ron Hemelgarn in his final attempt at age 47.

"He was a wonderful, wonderful human being," said current team owner and friend John Menard said. "We had some great times and memories. Jim had this wry Scottish sense of humour."

Menard noted that his daughter Molly caught her first fish on a trip in the Gulf of Mexico on Crawford's boat.

"It was in our freezer for 10 years," Menard said.

Born Feb. 13, 1948 in Fifeshire, Scotland, Crawford started his racing career as a mechanic in Formula Atlantic in Britain in 1972. He was given the chance the next year to drive one of the Chevron works cars and won the Formula Atlantic championship in 1974.

He was rewarded by being appointed test driver for Team Lotus in 1975. He drove in the British and Italian Grands Prix, but that was the beginning and end of his F1 career. He won the 1980 Formula 2 title in a Chevron and then, disillusioned with his progress, he came to America to drive the Ensign Can-Am car. He finished second in the series in both 1983 and 1984.

Crawford then found his niche at Indianapolis testing and driving the Buick stock-block engine cars. He drove in six other CART races in 1985, placing fourth at Long Beach, but from that point on he competed only in the Indianapolis 500.

Survivors include his wife, Annie, and son, Geoffrey.

A cause of death has yet to be determined.