Glenn Michael Seton (born 5 May 1965) is an Australian racing driver. He won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1993 and 1997 while driving for his own team. Although he never won the Bathurst 1000 like his father Barry did in 1965, Glenn started from pole position in 1994 and 1996, and finished second three times. He came close to winning the race in 1995, holding a significant lead in the closing stages, but his engine failed nine laps from the finish.
Career
Early career
Growing up in south-west Sydney, Seton had a successful karting career before switching to cars after a heavy crash at Oran Park Raceway aged 17. Teamed with John Bowe, Seton would then finish second in the 1987 James Hardie 1000 which that year was part of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship. Seton, who had driven a memorable stint on slick tyres in wet conditions, and Bowe were in a strong position behind the later-disqualified Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierra RS500s until a safety car delayed them. Post-season, Seton also competed at Suzuka Circuit in the final round of the 1987 Japanese Touring Car Championship with Anders Olofsson, finishing in fourth place. It was Seton's only major race outside Australasia.
1988 would be a frustrating year for Seton. Nissan introduced the new Skyline HR31 GTS-R, and with the car arriving only mid-season, the team could not get on terms with the much more powerful Ford Sierras. The cars initial unreliability saw Seton's Skyline retire from the first lap at both the Sandown 500 and Tooheys 1000, both times when the cars production-based gearbox failed. In addition to this, Seton reunited with George Fury to win the 1990 Sandown 500 which contributed to winning the 1990 Australian Endurance Championship.
Approaching the new Group 3A regulations developed for 1993, GSR was one of the teams to develop a new V8 engine Ford Falcon (EB). The team ran the Falcons at the season-ending endurance races in 1992, where Seton became the first driver to put a Falcon into the top-ten qualifiers at Bathurst since 1984. The move to the new V8 formula would prove fruitful for Seton, winning the 1993 and 1997 Australian Touring Car Championships. In this period from 1993 to 1997, Seton finished in the top three of the championship in each year.
Between 1999 and 2001, the team received increased funding from Ford Australia and was rebranded as Ford Tickford Racing. The team ran two cars in this period, first for Neil Crompton and then for Steven Richards but had limited success on track. Seton won his final solo championship race at Winton Motor Raceway in 2000, only losing the overall round victory after slipping off the track on oil in the final race.
Seton moved from Ford and joined his childhood friend, and old Nissan teammate, Mark Skaife's Holden Racing Team squad in the 2007 and 2008 endurance races. This marked the first times in Seton's career to drive a Holden. He finished 13th in the Sandown 500 with Tony Longhurst and 11th in the Bathurst 1000 with Nathan Pretty. Seton again joined the Holden Racing Team in 2008, driving the #2 car with Craig Baird. The pair came 14th at the Phillip Island 500 and were running strongly at the Bathurst 1000 until a late race clash with Warren Luff put them out of the race. He made his final Bathurst appearance with Jason Bargwanna for Kelly Racing in 2010.
Later career
After retiring from full-time driving, Seton completed in multiple seasons of Touring Car Masters, including finally winning his first race victory at Bathurst in 2011.
In 2013, Seton won the 2013 Great Southern 4 Hour, sharing a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 with Bob Pearson.
Personal life
Seton, with ex-wife Jayne, is father of Courtney and Aaron Seton, the latter of whom has also embarked on a racing career and now works as a mechanic for Dick Johnson Racing. Seton grew up in Moorebank in south-west Sydney before moving to Melbourne to work on the Nissan programme with his father. Seton would later move to the Gold Coast in 2004 where he currently resides.