Perth Race 25: Seton scorches clear
Today, Wanneroo becomes the first track to host 100 Supercars/ATCC races, with many famous names being crowned, such as Glenn Seton in 1995.
Twenty-two years after the first ATCC round out west in 1973, Wanneroo hosted the penultimate round of the 1995 season.
John Bowe was already well on his way to a maiden title, with the season dominated by the EF Falcons.
However, Glenn Seton was making a late-season charge to push Bowe for the crown, and the 25th race at Wanneroo was a prime example of that.
Having won the opening race of the weekend by just seven tenths in a nail-biter against Peter Brock, Seton was in prime position to carry on his momentum and he drove home the advantage.
Below is the full report in Auto Action’s issue from 30 years ago…
And away Glenn goes again.
But while he got a perfect start, Brock got hung out to dry, allowing both Perkins and the fast-starting Bowe to slot underneath, with Johnson, Mezera and Longhurst next.
Seton again pulled his fastest lap second time around, as he endeavoured successfully to build an unconquerable gap.
But behind him, the action was fierce, fraught and breathtaking.
It depended on who you talked to whether it was brilliant or dangerous.
Perkins led the gang for a lap on a combination of 914/928 UK Dunlops, but Bowe, on 936s, moved quickly by.
After six laps he signalled Perkins back in front as it became apparent that he was holding the Castrol Commodore up.
Perkins moved away and it became a desperate battle for third with Bowe, Brock, Johnson and Longhurst banging wheels and panels as they fought for the advantage
At the front of the group, the championship leader initially had to fight off Brock, who twice dropped wheels into the dirt on pit straight as Bowe veered hard right to defend the very inside line.
It was behaviour the veteran found less than impressive:
“When you are beside another car and they run you off into the dirt, you’ve got to make a choice as a driver if you’re overtaking them. Do you keep your boot into it and spin them around and have a crash coming down the pit straight or do you back-off?
There was a lot of that happening.”
At one stage, Johnson nearly rounded Brock up on the outside, only to lose out to Longhurst at turn one and drop to the back of the pack. Then, when Bowe hung Brock out to dry at turn one it was Longhurst’s turn to have a go.
From lap nine through to the end of lap 14, Longhurst pushed as hard as he could at Bowe, but the Tasmanian was driving ultra-defensively, holding the inside line from the brow of the main straight down to Yokohama Corner, blocking through the turn and then diving for the inside line.
Finally, the inevitable tears came. Longhurst tagged Bowe on the right rear corner with his left front as they exited Yokohama Corner, the yellow Falcon spinning into the sand trap on the inside of the turn. Fortunately, Bowe was not bogged and got going again in 11th.
“It was plain to see what happened”, he ground out tersely as he left the circuit later, having fought back to seventh place at the chequered flag.
Then the black flag came out for Longhurst, calling him in for a 10 second stop/go penalty, and two laps later came his dramatic spin in pit lane.
While he later said he locked up on a wet patch, eyewitnesses claimed Longhurst was going much too fast, caroming off the tractor tyres at the pitlane entry and rotating to the left as teams members dived over the wall.
Not everyone made it safely, with Ian Love’s mechanic Chris Vizouski suffering extensive leg bruising, while three others were also struck.
Longhurst was pushed backwards up pitlane to his pit, and furiously emerged from his car to blast the stop\go call.
“Bowe was holding me up for laps,’ said Castrol Falcon driver.
“I was much faster than him. He should have been black-flagged for holding me up. I shouldn’t have been black-flagged.”
Somewhat forgotten, the race was continuing on. Perkins slowly moved in on Seton, closing to within 1.5 secs at one stage late in the race, until it blew out again as they encountered lappers.
Brock cleared out from Johnson after another bumping duel, but was never in position to threaten the top two, while Johnson plummeted to eighth as his 936s gave up the ghost.
Skaife, who had closed up on and then watched the stoush for third with glee, was able to collect fourth despite a failing master cylinder that was applying more and more brake as the race wore on.
He held out Richards by 0.18 sec, who in turn beat Mezera by just 0.016 sec. Gardner and Crompton completed the top 10 with Attard leading Parsons home by just over a second after an enthralling privateer battle.
Jones, the winner of race two and the round overall here last year, was out after six laps with a failed heat exchanger.
Supercars Perth Super440 (all times AEST)
Practice 1: 1: Jaxon Evans 55.0864 2: Ryan Wood +0.3596 3: Broc Feeney +0.3948
Practice 2: 1: Matt Payne 54.3903 2: Anton De Pasquale +0.0856 3: Thomas Randle +0.2214
R14 Qualifying: 1 Chaz Mostert 53.6858 2 Ryan Wood +0.0839 3 Brodie Kostecki +0.0961
R15 Qualifying: 1 Ryan Wood 53.8966 2 Cameron Waters +0.2578 3 Broc Feeney +0.3017
Race 14 (50 laps): 1 Ryan Wood 47:18.8672 2 Will Brown Triple Eight 50 +0.6129 3 Chaz Mostert WAU 50 +3.3897 -2
R16 Qualifying: Sun 13.00-13.30
Top 10 Shootout: Sun 15.05-15.35
Race 16 (83 laps): Sun 17.15
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