Kondo Racing Dome S101 Mugen by SCX/MTR32

Even though the Kondo Dome dates from 2002 it had been updated to 2004 specifications. It had Yokohama and not Dunlop tyres and was powered by a 4-litre Mugen engine, which had been considerably improved during the winterby Satoshi Katsumata who was in charge of the engineers involved in the project. The crew was 100% Japanese led by Hiroki Katoh who came 5th in 2001 in a Panoz. His teammates were Ryo Michigami and Ryo Fukuda both making their Le Mans debut.

Hiroki Katoh was the fastest of the three in practice and got round in 3m 36,285 secs which was 5 secs better than last years qualify. The starting position on the grid was 7th place and in frront of both the Racing For Holland Dome Judds, so all the hard work done by Mugen, Dome and Yokohama since the previous year had paid off - but would it last? At 19h00 the Japanese Dome-Mugen passed the Pescarolo no. 18 to take third place. Then the car slowed down at Mulsanne and took 6 minutes to rejoin its pit where a transmission

change lost it 20 minutes and 20 places: another outsider down the tubes! The Japanese team fought back and in just six hours they went from 23rd to 6th place. But just before 06h00 the car stopped and covered only 4 laps in two hours. An oil leak discovered in the pits put an end to the Japanese car's race.

Hour by hour: Start - 7th 1h - 9th 2h - 3rd 3h - 3rd 4h - 23rd 5h - 12th 6h - 10th 7h - 8th 8h - 8th 9h - 8th 10h - 6th 11h - 6th 12h - 6th 13h - 6th 14h - 6th 15h - 12th 16h - 25th 17h - 18h - 19h - 20h - 21h - 22h - 23h - 24h -