Dean Canto has taken out his third consecutive pole position at round three of the HPDC V8 Supercar Series at Eastern Creek Raceway today ahead of Adam Macrow and Warren Luff. The Ford trio exchanged fastest lap times along with the Holden pair of Tony D’Alberto and Lee Holdsworth who rounded out the top five.

Canto had a disappointing previous round at Wakefield Park where he failed to start two of the three races which saw him slide down the Championship points table to eighth position. He will be looking to resurrect his Championship hopes this weekend, despite tough competition from fellow competitors Macrow and Luff who are also looking for strong performances going into the tail end of the season.

“The Championship is still in reach for us,” Canto said. “Any one of the top ten drivers could encounter the same fate as I did at the last round – although I definitely wouldn’t wish it upon any of them.”

The Dick Johnson Racing team put new tyres on Canto’s Gatorz sponsored BA Falcon in this afternoon’s qualifying session and immediately saw results with an improved lap time of just over one second, despite a light shower passing over the circuit at the commencement of the upper 50 per cent qualifying session.

“With the shower passing over we weren’t quite sure what to expect, especially with lap times already on the board on a dry track for the lower 50 per cent. From my point of view the water made the track a bit cleaner and we got very good traction towards the end of the session.”

Macrow, who has not raced at Eastern Creek Raceway since 1999, recorded the second fastest lap time of the day and showed he will be a main contender for the round win after coming off the first win for himself and his team Howard Racing at the last round at Wakefield Park.

“Like a few of the other guys, we made some big gains on new tyres in the qualifying session today,” Macrow said.

“We worked on the balance set-up in both practice sessions earlier today to make sure the car was going to be consistent and that we got ourselves in a good position for the start of the first race tomorrow morning, which we managed to do.”

V8 Supercar youngster D’Alberto continued his consistent year-to-date with the fourth fastest lap time of the day, despite struggling with the car set-up for most of the morning.

“Unfortunately we have been struggling with the car all day with understeer in the middle section of the track, so it was good to see we can still get up there,” D’Alberto said.

“I was on course for a fast flying lap towards the end of qualifying, but got held up behind traffic which made things a bit frustrating. The team has done a great job despite the problems we have been having and I’m sure we will have the car in good shape for the first race tomorrow.”

Holdsworth made his HPDC V8 Supercar Series debut this weekend after a seven month break, showing he still has what it takes to record good results in the Smiths Trucks Holden Commodore.

“It’s nice to be back racing a V8 Supercar and even nicer to be fifth quickest after being away from the series for so long,” said Holdsworth.

“We’ve got a bit of a gap to the cars behind us so I believe if we can keep our nose clean tomorrow we can get amongst the results.”

All of the action of round three of the HPDC V8 Supercar Series starts with race one at 10.30am on Sunday 10^th July. Tickets are available at the gate or by calling 02 967 21000. Children 12 years and under and Grandstand seating are free.

Qualifying Top Ten

1. #71  Dean Canto              Dick Johnson Racing             1.33.5443

2. #27  Adam Macrow             Howard Racing           1.33.8644

3. #60  Warren Luff             Paul Cruickshank Racing 1.33.8848

4. #99  Tony D’Alberto  Tony D’Alberto Racing           1.33.9135

5. #72  Lee Holdsworth  Smiths Trucks                   1.34.1977

6. #65  Phillip Scifleet                Paul Cruickshank Racing 1.35.1739

7. #81  Grant Denyer            Dick Johnson Racing             1.35.3439

8. #26  Jose Fernandez          Fujitsu Racing                  1.35.6299

9. #37  Mark Howard             Howard Racing           1.35.8261

10. #30Tony Evangelou   Dexion Racing                   1.35.8955

HPDC V8 Supercar Series Event Schedule

Sunday 10th July

10.30am         HPDC V8 Supercar Series         Race One (12 Laps)
12.45pm         HPDC V8 Supercar Series         Race Two - Full Reverse Grid (12 Laps)
3pm             HPDC V8 Supercar Series         Race Three (22 Laps)
Race End        HPDC V8 Supercar Series         Podium Presentation