Dome target top six finish

Their closed-roof prototype lapped consistently in today's Le Mans test sessions after running for the first time in Europe at Spa-Francorchamps last week.

Dome director Hiroshi Fushida believes the car could even finish among the Peugeots and Audis in the race in two weeks time.

"Of course the target is always to be the quickest car, but in reality it's difficult," he told autosport.com. "Audi and Peugeot are giants with huge budgets and lots of testing time so it's very difficult for anyone to compete with them.

"But we think we can surprise people with this car. Everyone expects the top six cars to be the Peugeots and Audis but we want to be among the top six. I believe this will mean being the quickest petrol car."

Fushida is confident after the testing the team have conducted so far, and expects the car to be reliable.

"We think the testing has gone very well and we are confident in the reliability. We can't say 100 per cent until it's proven over 24 hours, but we know the car well now.

"We designed it ourselves so we know everything about it. This is an advantage over giving it to someone else to run, even though it's difficult for us because we don't have a base in Europe so everything has come on a temporary basis from Japan."

Dome's driver line-up comprises reigning Japanese Super GT champions Daisuke Ito and Yuji Tachikawa, and series regular Tatsuya Kataoka. All three will have to complete the mandatory laps for Le Mans rookies during practice, but the car finished this afternoon's test session 11th overall.