The big risk that set up Seton's first title

The 2023 season marks 30 years since Glenn Seton won his first championship in the first year of the V8 era.

Seton — racing for his own team — raced an EB Falcon to the 1993 championship.

To date, Seton — a Supercars Hall of Famer — is one of just 14 drivers to win mutliple titles, adding a second in 1997.

It was his first title in 1993, however, which was built off a risk taken a year earlier.

The Group A era was coming to an end in 1992, and Nissans swept the pool with Mark Skaife and Jim Richards.

Skaife led Richards in a series one-two, with BMW’s Tony Longhurst third.

John Bowe was first Ford home in fourth with his Sierra, with Seton racing his own Sierra to fifth.

Seton at Sandown in 1992

Come the enduros, and Seton took a punt and ran his 1993-specification EB Falcon.

The Falcon nameplate made its first appearance in eight years in the 1992 Sandown 500.

The 1992 enduros were open to the Group A cars, Group 3E Series Production Cars and the 1993 5.0 Litre Touring Cars.

The Holden Racing Team and Peter Brock’s Mobil 1 Racing team ran the new VP Commodores.

Seton, meanwhile, was the only Ford driver to campaign the new 1993-spec EB Falcon.

Partnered with Alan Jones, Seton managed sixth in the Shootout, but failed to finish the race.

Come Bathurst, and against the likes of the Sierras, GT-Rs and BMWs, the four 1993-spec cars all reached the Shootout.

Seton won seven races in 1993 in his new Falcon

Seton was best-placed in fourth, but his and Jones’ day ended on lap 84 with fuel pump failure.

For the record, Skaife and Richards won the Great Race in controversial and well-publicised circumstances.

At the time, there wasn’t much in the way of results — but it helped Seton and his team get a headstart for 1993.

"We spent most of 1992 developing the car behind the scenes,” Seton told V8 Sleuth in 2018.

"We had a mechanical at Sandown when we dropped a tail shaft and at Bathurst we dropped a crankshaft.

"We’d had it lightened locally but it wasn’t strong enough. Simple as that.

"I remember going there with the wings; it was such a pleasure to drive, compared to the Sierra.

'We came out of the box with unbelievably competitive cars'

"The excitement of having the first test day at Phillip Island.

"We had both cars there and to be able to hop into the Falcon, which felt a lot better than the Sierra, it put a huge smile on my face."

Ford hadn’t won a drivers’ title since Dick Johnson in 1989, but for 1993, Seton’s team had built two new cars for 1993.

Seton, then aged 27, led Jones in a dominant one-two finish for the team in 1993.

After a slow start at the Amaroo and Symmons Plains rounds, Seton and Jones dominated at Phillip Island, Lakeside, Winton and Eastern Creek.

In a heartbeat, Seton had taken six wins in 13 starts, and claimed another race and round win at Mallala to edge towards to the title.

Seton then clinched the title in Perth after Bowe spun out and with Jones only sixth.

Seton won a second title in 1997

A pair of fourths at the Oran Park finale made the title official for Seton, with Jones second overall after finishing sixth.

All up, Seton won seven of the season’s 18 races, and four of the nine rounds — and did so without claiming a pole all season.

From there, Seton was the form driver of the mid-1990s, finishing in the top three of the championship in each year between 1993 and 1997.

"It was a really good decision to risk the 1992 endurance races with an unproven car because it set us up for 1993,” Seton said.

"We came out of the box with unbelievably competitive cars, finishing one-two in the championship.

"The start of the Supercar era in 1993, that was the turning point for my team.

"We established ourselves as a team that could go out and win championships.”

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle on March 10-12.

Tickets are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.