IT might not have been the weather he was hoping for on Thursday but Dean Canto still enjoyed the opportunity to get more laps at Mount Panorama under his belt during Challenge Bathurst.
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Canto sat on top of the time sheets for almost the entirety of the day’s SuperSprint events behind the wheel of the Trofeo Motorsports Lamborghini Huracán GT3 he drove in this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour.
During the morning’s familiarisation sessions Canto produced a time of two minutes and 10.992 seconds, a mark he and co-driver Jim Manolios would certainly be hoping to improve upon if the rain stayed away.
However, the heavens opened up during the following practice sessions and hung around until the second batch of timed runs in the afternoon.
Canto’s mark was finally beaten during the final timed session when Jaxon Evans produced a 2:07.366 on a drying track.
“I went out just to make sure everything was alright because the car hasn’t been running for a little while. I just wanted to check that it wasn’t doing anything too nervous before Jim drove it later on,” Canto said of his familiarisation drive.
“I’ve been around here plenty of times and I drove that car in the 12 Hour so I had a pretty good reference when I headed out there.
“The biggest challenge though was just finding clean air because the group of I was out there with was mostly P platers. It was probably a bit nervy for them having nothing in the rear view mirror then suddenly seeing a big Huracán behind them.”
Canto and Manolios were joined by Ryan Millier and former Formula 1 driver Ivan Capelli at this year’s 12 Hour, finishing the race in ninth.
The team have strong ambitions to take home the top Pro-Am class prize in this February’s edition of the 12 Hour after finishing third in that battle.
Challenge Bathurst was set to be an important part of that process but the undesirable weather has made it hard to determine exactly where the Lamborghini is at when it comes to pace.
“It’s unfortunate that we haven’t been able to get the testing in that we would have liked to have,” Canto said.
“The lap doesn’t matter. At the end of the day we can analyse corner by corner from different laps if we have to.
“We’re just working on where the car was weak during the 12 Hour, focusing on those key points and helping the car improve in those areas.
“When we come here for the 12 Hour it’s a different weekend because the cars are a bit more evenly matched in speed so you get a clearer running.”
Canto is used to a wet Mount Panorama after driving in this year’s rain soaked edition of the Bathurst 1000 alongside Mark Winterbottom.
The Supercars endurance driver said it’s always a fun challenge to jump into a different machine on the Bathurst track.
“Supercars tune their speed differenty and I’m still getting used to downforce cars. I’m a lot more at home in a Supercar but these are still a lot of fun,” Canto said.