'98: G.Seton & R.Forbes - What happened?

[STEVO]

Does anyone else recall this short-lived partnership between Glenn Seton and Rodney Forbes?

In 1998, I remember buying a copy of Motorsport News Magazine (when it was still the size of the old style AA) and the cover had a feature on Alan Jones joining Longhurst Racing and the top banner read "Shock: Seton Second Car".

Glenn had planned to run a second GSR EL in the 1998 ATCC driven by Formula Ford "star" Rodney Forbes.

I remember seeing Rodney drive GSR #28 at the AGP, the GSR car looked like Glenn's only had no Ford Credit signage. So it was the trademark tri-colour look on the side with blue, red and white but no sponsor. . . or at least no Ford Credit.

Because the race was telecast by CH9 they didn't really mention it, nor did they show any cars beyond P4 (which meant we didn't see Forbes in the GSR car).

Then all of a sudden, this Seton/Forbes partnership disappeared? Never to be mentioned again. Later that year, Neil Crompton hops behind the wheel of GSR #111 and becomes the teams official second car?

Even when quizzed about it on TEN, Glenn spoke how it's important to run 2 cars these days and that Crompton was a great steerer etc etc etc. Yet no one ever stopped to ask "now Glenn you did run a 2nd car earlier in the year with Rodney, what happened there?"

So what happened to Rodney Forbes? How come it has never ever been mentioned? Not in any of the Seton bio's or anywhere? It's like one of them weird myths that no one ever mentions?

It was a flash in the pan thing and Rodney Forbes would go on to become the series 'jackass' and still no one ever mentions that we should've blamed Glenn for helping initiate his V8 career

Do people not remember this?

GTRMagic; can you shed any light on what happened? Details of the arrangement? The split? The silence post-1998? Please tell me YOU at least recall this?

[GTRMagic]

I do remember Mr Forbes driving the blue car...

I can also remember the #28 car not particularly watching where he was going and nerfing the #1 car in the bum....

The plan was (I thought) to run Mr Forbes in a customer car from GSR. Presumably when the money came thru from Ford/Ford Credit/Bridgestone to expand to 2 cars controlled by GSR, then the customer car idea was quietly shelved.

I recall that not long after (1999) Mr Forbes bought an ex-WGR VR/VS, painted it that chameleon brown/purple PPG paint, and won the privateers class in that season....

Both of these events were well after a NSW Formula Ford campaign for Mr Forbes, which showed he was a handy steerer on occassion, and a run in that Playboy BMW to a top 10 position in the ST Bathurst 1000...

[Silver 3]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I do remember Mr Forbes driving the blue car...

I can also remember the #28 car not particularly watching where he was going and nerfing the #1 car in the bum....
.

You have long memory ! That was in Practice?Qualifying when Glenn was trying to show him the track to help Rodney. Got the touch up when RF outbraked himself!

[STEVO]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I do remember Mr Forbes driving the blue car...

I can also remember the #28 car not particularly watching where he was going and nerfing the #1 car in the bum....

No way?

So what exactly happened? See I don't remember that at all? Care to expand? So during qualifying Glenn got hit up the arse by Forbes?

I remember Glenn ran about Top 5/6 all weekend so I guess it didn't do too much damage to the #1 EL. Or did it?

See I didn't realise this happened; fascinating stuff.

GTR - Do you ever recall reading a Press Release from GSR re this incident or a termination announcement? Was the whole thing canned because of this one accident at the AGP support race?

Cheers.

[STEVO]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The plan was (I thought) to run Mr Forbes in a customer car from GSR. Presumably when the money came thru from Ford/Ford Credit/Bridgestone to expand to 2 cars controlled by GSR, then the customer car idea was quietly shelved.

Yes but Rodney never re-appeared in GSR#28 since that AGP race. And Crompton didn't arrive with genuine Bridgestone/Ford Credit/Mobil/Ford money until Calder Park later that year in 1998.

So Glenn couldn't have shelved the customer car idea to Rodney based on more money coming through because that cash didn't arrive until about July/August in 1998 when Neil drove #111.

So what happened in between then? Did Glenn watch the replay of the AGP race and think "best not to waste my time"

Strange. . .

[Onlooker]

I recall him sticking it in the fence at Lakeside, in practice or qualifying, coming down the hill and the guys poppped it away, and his ass never again slid behind the wheel.

I think he binned it every time he drove it ............... and anything else in years to come

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by STEVO

GTR - Do you ever recall reading a Press Release from GSR re this incident or a termination announcement? Was the whole thing canned because of this one accident at the AGP support race?

These were the days of a pretty ordinary media presence, inside the teams anyway... I remembe that GSR was in Racecar Engineering with the stats of the 1997 series win, with only 6 people in the squad...

... but GSR never really had a strong media operation primarily because of the previous incarnation as a tool of Philip Morris...

I suspect the crash had something to do with it... cant recall anything else at the time that influenced the deal...

Unless of course Mr Forbes was just not happy driving for GSR... sometimes teams and drivers click, sometimes they do not. I cannot imagine that if the team had 6 bods in in during 1997 that they had scaled up much for season 1998... so perhaps resourcing/engineering/feeling unloved was another issue.

Arguably Mr Forbes' best season was when he was lead driver in his own car in the RFR Harlequin-painted Commodore... the need to not feel like 2nd string despite paying a fortune for the seat may be something he needed too...

[STEVO]

Fair enough. Yes During those 2 years Glenn only had about 6 or so fulltimers and he would hop out of the car post-race and fiddle with the greasey bits too.

So maintaining a customer car for a crash-tastic rookie I guess did seem far-fetched and somewhat fruitless.

Know where I could maybe find pics of the GSR/Forbes EL?

Anyways. Cheers for clearing it up. Always bugged me. Now I know.

[Falcadore]

If you know the ins and outs of VESRIX you can look this stuff up fairly easily.

Rodney Forbes

Rodney Forbes at the races

Rodney Forbes in 1998

While I have the advantage of knowing the coding, there are some pull downs to make it easier.

While the results are a few years out of date, 1998 is certainly in there.

[Falcadore]

by the way, that 1999 brown/purple VS was an arms length second Lansvale entry, their first step at running a two car team.

There was a comical incident at Bathurst that year when both Holdens went out for one session and ground to a halt in the Chase on their out lap with no oil in the diff.

Did we skip a step on the checklist?

[STEVO]

Ah ok. Didn't realise that Forbes also ran #28 at Lakeside. Interesting. Didn't realise he notched up 3 DNS.

Perhaps this is why Crompton was brought in soon after.

[Falcadore]

The car was crashed in practice and the team decided it was to difficult to repair so far from base.