Le Mans Series

T2M Motorsport joins LMP2 ranks with Dome

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

It is with a huge pride that Ietoshi KANEKO, CEO of the Team T2M Motorsport, is happy to announce in this end of year the arrival of his team in the LM P2 category next year. The Japanese team signed some days ago an agreement with Dome to enter a prototype in the biggest European endurances races among which, naturally, the 24 hours of Le Mans.

By opting for a Dome S 101.5 chassis, T2M Motorsport will be the very first team to enter a prototype of the japanese constructor in the LM P2 category. The mutual confidence between the team of Ietoshi Kaneko and the firm founded by Minoru Hayashi is on the base of this partnership.

© Planetlemans - Frank Feenstra

" The craze of Japan around endurance racing remains so strong and the presence of Dome in this sport for several years is one of the symbols. As Japanese team, I looked closely at the opportunity to enter a Japanese car in sportscars for some time. Not that I am not satisfied by the situation with Porsche, who always perfectly supported my team and with whom I have excellent relations, but simply because I wanted to settle a new challenge in endurance racing. In 2007, if our candidature is retained, it will be the 10th time when I shall return to Le Mans but it would be the first time without Porsche and the first one also with a prototype. It is thus a particularly exciting challenge! " says Ietoshi Kaneko.

The Dome which will use by the team T2M Motorsport will be an emanation of the S 101 HB chassis entered this year by Racing For Holland, adapted to the LM P2 technical rules. The choice of this chassis constitutes the first stage of this new program centred around the 24 hours of Le Mans and Le Mans Series. The discussions with the other partners are in progress, especially for the engine and the tyres. Next year, Dome will thus be represented in both categories prototype in Le Mans, with the team of Jan Lammers in LM P1 and that from Ietoshi Kaneko to LM P2.

The entry in the prototype category supposes for the team the intensification of its staff. There will be naturally a usual core of German mechanics, but Japanese from Dome are so going to join us that English. Of what to give to the team T2M Motorsport a very international identity! As far as it will henceforth be based in France! Because the implementation of this new challenge will require for the team T2M Motorsport an adaptation of the average human beings, but also technical. " We are effectively going to settle down on the Pole Mecanique of Alès, in the South of France, from March 2007, time in which we are going to receive the car from Japan. It is a site perfectly adapted for our needs. There is excellent infrastructures over there, we shall have a track at hand to be able to lead attempts and we have almost the guarantee of the good weather permanently " explains Ietoshi Kaneko.{mospagebreak }Regarding the drivers, T2M Motorsport has not made choice yet and wishes to give itself of time to make it. " To raise such a challenge is a very audacious bet for our team. We are going to cross a very important cap by reaching the prototype category and it is important for me to find the best solutions for every parameter. It is also valid for the drivers. This new adventure would not be possible without all the friends, the partners who follow us for years and I am anxious to offer them the best chances to shine. ”

Once the engine and tyres partners were appointed and we’ll have received Dome chassis, Team T2M Motorsport banks on a first run at the beginning of April, but not before. " There are very few chances so that we are ready for the tests of Le Castellet because the team will have to assemble first of all the car and, because it will be about a quite new car, this stage will require necessarily a little of time. Our objective is nevertheless to be able to carry out a testing session maximum before Monza (or Valencia, according to). "

This new orientation for the team T2M Motorsport marks the beginning of a great adventure in endurance racing. A sport in which the projects abound at present and when the media brilliance strengthened year by year. If the fame of the 24 hours of Le Mans is not to be any more demonstrated, that of it Le Mans Series will still become more marked in 2007. In the landscape of sportscar, the LM P2 category became one of the most desired because after the arrival of Porsche and Honda in American Le Mans Series, Courage, Zytek, Lola, Pilbeam, Lucchini, Radical and henceforth Dome go fight in Europe in this category. With the support of Dome, T2M Motorsport please hope too to take advantage, of the wave which breaks out at present in LM P2. " We have many projects with this car but it is for the means and the long term. We shall talk again of it in due course and the only matter which I can say at the moment, it is that they are exciting projects " comments Ietoshi Kaneko.