Seton Fanatic
New member
Despite the result from Glenn Seton and Dean Canto in today's Bathurst 1000, I must say that there are a lot of positives that have come out of this weekend I will also analyse the major incident from today's race involving Marcos Ambrose and Greg Murphy, but first.
This weekend was the first weekend in a very long time that Glenn has had a car consistently quick through Practice and Qualifying. It made for pleasant reading seeing Glenn consistently in the top 10. Dean did his customary good job in the co-driver's session, with the sixth fastest time, proving that #18 would not be a one-man band on Sunday.
I can't really analyse Qualifying properly, as the coverage was devoted to three or four cars, that were at the pointy end of the time sheets. Having said that, I noticed that the commentators were keen to pump up the Seton/Canto combination through the weekend, which made a pleasant change from the otherwise nondescript coverage he normally gets in other rounds of the championship, when running well. It was pleasing to see him make his 15th shootout, and keep ahead of Skaifey on the all-time list.
Saturday's practice session was disappointing; a small error by Glenn, costing 12-13 valuable minutes of track time, and a chance to set a quick time. The shootout was a mixed bag emotionally. In one hand, I was happy that Glenn took the safe option, and drove a traditional Seton shootout lap; nice and smooth, with no real dramatic moments. On the other, I was disappointed with the mixed conditions, but it was something we Seton fans had to cop. Eighth on the grid was enough for optimism to rein high in the Fanatic household, for Sunday, although I wasn't confident of victory.
The start was the best start I've seen from Glenn at Bathurst in ages. He was aggressive off the line, and kept it that way during the stint. I was proud of the way Glenn drove in all his stints today. Only when the car didn't have pace, did he let the cars behind past. There was no 'bus driving', as we have seen in the past (2000, 2001 and 2002 all come to mind). Glenn kept at it and didn't make an error, unlike more successful and experienced contemporaries. Someone may have the stats on Seton's pace, but it didn't appear that the car was in real contention for a win, let alone a podium. 4th appeared the absolute best that the car could have achieved today, so there was not a big hit points-wise, as there may have been, had the race stayed green, and without the catastrophic incident near the end of the race.
Dean probably performed below most's expectations, including mine, but he kept at it, and for the most part, didn't make too many errors, other the unfortunate coming-together with Andrew Jones, which lost #18 any chance of a top 5 result. I will be interested to see the lap times, but certainly Dean appeared at times to doing a bit of Seton-esque 'bus-driving' at certain stages during his stint.
Now for the Ambrose/Murphy incident. The feeling among my mates and I was that, if anyone was in the wrong, that Murphy was to blame. The car was nowhere near the B-Pillar, and there appeared to be a brief opportunity for Murphy to lift. Now, given the recent change in perspective on these matters, I expect Ambrose to hauled over the coals from a driving standpoint for this incident, even though under the old perspective, he would have been okay, from my standpoint.
Chaos ensued behind, and some cars including Seton were unlucky to get through. The real question is, why didn't Murphy keep going. The car appeared from the scale of the incident to be relatively unharmed; we speculated that Murphy may have suffered brain-fade, and gone to give Ambrose a gobful, which if the car was unharmed, makes the ensuing spat even less professional than what it was.
Both drivers disgraced the sport with their ensuing actions. I, for one, thought that the both of them were going to knock each other's lights out. Fair enough, emotions spill over, but in a situation that could have been far worse, had a car come along and hit one of them, it was extremely unprofessional, and I expect a loss of points and fines for both drivers, although Marcos went someway to giving himself some leverage with his considerably calmer comments just before the end, in contrast to Murphy's trash talk, which overshadowed Morris' racial slur, which will be looked at, if the politically correct have their way.
Bathurst 1000's just keep getting weirder and weirder every year. Surely, a return to an old-style enduro would be welcomed by most next year, after today's events.
Congratulations to the Holden Racing Team on a superb victory, and Tasman Motorsport, for a personal best result.
I'll be at Surfers in two weeks and look forward to giving you a similar sort of report.
This weekend was the first weekend in a very long time that Glenn has had a car consistently quick through Practice and Qualifying. It made for pleasant reading seeing Glenn consistently in the top 10. Dean did his customary good job in the co-driver's session, with the sixth fastest time, proving that #18 would not be a one-man band on Sunday.
I can't really analyse Qualifying properly, as the coverage was devoted to three or four cars, that were at the pointy end of the time sheets. Having said that, I noticed that the commentators were keen to pump up the Seton/Canto combination through the weekend, which made a pleasant change from the otherwise nondescript coverage he normally gets in other rounds of the championship, when running well. It was pleasing to see him make his 15th shootout, and keep ahead of Skaifey on the all-time list.
Saturday's practice session was disappointing; a small error by Glenn, costing 12-13 valuable minutes of track time, and a chance to set a quick time. The shootout was a mixed bag emotionally. In one hand, I was happy that Glenn took the safe option, and drove a traditional Seton shootout lap; nice and smooth, with no real dramatic moments. On the other, I was disappointed with the mixed conditions, but it was something we Seton fans had to cop. Eighth on the grid was enough for optimism to rein high in the Fanatic household, for Sunday, although I wasn't confident of victory.
The start was the best start I've seen from Glenn at Bathurst in ages. He was aggressive off the line, and kept it that way during the stint. I was proud of the way Glenn drove in all his stints today. Only when the car didn't have pace, did he let the cars behind past. There was no 'bus driving', as we have seen in the past (2000, 2001 and 2002 all come to mind). Glenn kept at it and didn't make an error, unlike more successful and experienced contemporaries. Someone may have the stats on Seton's pace, but it didn't appear that the car was in real contention for a win, let alone a podium. 4th appeared the absolute best that the car could have achieved today, so there was not a big hit points-wise, as there may have been, had the race stayed green, and without the catastrophic incident near the end of the race.
Dean probably performed below most's expectations, including mine, but he kept at it, and for the most part, didn't make too many errors, other the unfortunate coming-together with Andrew Jones, which lost #18 any chance of a top 5 result. I will be interested to see the lap times, but certainly Dean appeared at times to doing a bit of Seton-esque 'bus-driving' at certain stages during his stint.
Now for the Ambrose/Murphy incident. The feeling among my mates and I was that, if anyone was in the wrong, that Murphy was to blame. The car was nowhere near the B-Pillar, and there appeared to be a brief opportunity for Murphy to lift. Now, given the recent change in perspective on these matters, I expect Ambrose to hauled over the coals from a driving standpoint for this incident, even though under the old perspective, he would have been okay, from my standpoint.
Chaos ensued behind, and some cars including Seton were unlucky to get through. The real question is, why didn't Murphy keep going. The car appeared from the scale of the incident to be relatively unharmed; we speculated that Murphy may have suffered brain-fade, and gone to give Ambrose a gobful, which if the car was unharmed, makes the ensuing spat even less professional than what it was.
Both drivers disgraced the sport with their ensuing actions. I, for one, thought that the both of them were going to knock each other's lights out. Fair enough, emotions spill over, but in a situation that could have been far worse, had a car come along and hit one of them, it was extremely unprofessional, and I expect a loss of points and fines for both drivers, although Marcos went someway to giving himself some leverage with his considerably calmer comments just before the end, in contrast to Murphy's trash talk, which overshadowed Morris' racial slur, which will be looked at, if the politically correct have their way.
Bathurst 1000's just keep getting weirder and weirder every year. Surely, a return to an old-style enduro would be welcomed by most next year, after today's events.
Congratulations to the Holden Racing Team on a superb victory, and Tasman Motorsport, for a personal best result.
I'll be at Surfers in two weeks and look forward to giving you a similar sort of report.
