THIS week Saturday Sleuthing takes a look at a car that drew down the curtain on a chapter of V8 Supercar racing for Glenn Seton.
That car is FTR004, the last V8 Supercar built by Seton’s team, then known as Ford Tickford Racing, and indeed one of the last cars his team raced prior to its sale to Prodrive out of which Ford Performance Racing was formed.
FTR 004 was built new during 2001 and made its racing debut in Seton and Steve Richards’ hands at that year’s Bathurst 1000 before reverting to Richards’ hands for the remainder of the championship.
The FTR brand disappeared from the team’s doors for 2002 and it reverted back to Glenn Seton Racing with Ford Credit support.
This chassis became Seton’s #5 car for the start of the season but he had a massive accident at Turn 8 in Adelaide that sidelined it for the next few rounds.
It returned in Seton’s hands at Barbagallo and he used this chassis for the majority of the remainder of the season, including Bathurst where David Besnard was a late replacement for Owen Kelly.
Ironically, Besnard ended up at the wheel of this car in early 2003 when it went to FPR. Seton started the season in it before his new BA Falcon was completed. Besnard moved into it for a handful of rounds before his BA was later finished.
From there the car spent a brief amount of time in the ‘main game’ in 2004 with Garth Walden and then in the Development Series via Aaron McGill before it was retired after 2008.
It was damaged in a multi-car accident at Wakefield Park that year, though was repaired and sold to Perth-based collector Andy Brown nearly a decade ago.
It remains part of his private collection of race and road cars and has been returned to its 2001 Bathurst Seton/Richards #5 FTR livery.
