Parsons knows
Parsons took another year off in 1991 before returning in 1992 in another Sierra, this time with Glenn Seton Racing.
“There was interest from Tomas Mezera, who was running HRT, and Dick Johnson offered me $25,000, but Glenn had been watching. I saw him and said, ‘I’m stopping with you’. Not many know about that.”
Parsons would drive for Seton’s team for the next six years.
“I co-drove at the enduros with Wayne Park, who was doing ATCC rounds. We finished eighth at Bathurst. The bloody things were a big handful. Both Glenn and I chipped our right elbows. They used to lock the rear brakes, we’d grab a handful of lock and blacked my elbow on the foamless cross-members (on the rollcage). I still have a floating bit of bone in my elbow.”
Finally in 1993 Parsons was back in a V8, and for the first time a Falcon. He shared a GSR Ford with Geoff Brabham (who only months earlier had won the Le Mans 24 Hours), snagging a surprise win at Sandown.
“At Sandown everyone was crashing, but we had good pace. I said to Geoff to keep it straight, don’t over rev it, nail the pitstops and we’ll be fine. And that’s what we did. Geoff was very slow to start with but I did help him to pick up his pace. I did a double-stint and Geoff finished the race. At Bathurst we finished sixth, all good, though maybe a bit off the pace.”
In 1994 Parsons teamed up with Alan Jones in the second GSR Falcon. He remembers the burly ex-F1 World Champion fondly.
“A really good guy. We got on like a house on fire. AJ qualified at Bathurst and he was quick. But I only did a few laps before we retired.
In 1995 Parsons was entered with Jones in the second GSR Falcon, with the team boss and Allan Grice to be paired together for the race. After qualifying, Seton decided to switch Parsons, the fastest of the three hired hands, into the lead car with himself.
“AJ was good about it. He wasn’t happy and neither was Grice. AJ said, ‘If that’s what the boss wants; he pays the bills.”
This was the Bathurst 1000 where Seton came closest to snaring an elusive win, only to stop with a broken rocker nine laps from the end. It would rob Parsons of a second Bathurst win. He gives an interesting analysis on the state of play with the GSR Ford engines.
“It broke a rocker and dropped a valve. Glenn over-revved it once – by 250 revs. AJ should have won it (he came second). He over-revved four times a lap! He was notorious on downshifts – 8500 and 9000rpm! But he kept going. We were way in front. It was the luck of the draw. I had the utmost respect for Glenn. He was just the unluckiest guy around Bathurst.”
Parsons would team up twice more with Seton in 1996 and 1997. They qualified on the front row both times but had little to show for it.