#16 DOME S101 JUDD RACING FOR HOLLAND

Tom Coronel (GB)

Justin Wilson (GB)

Ralph Firman (GB)

José Carlos Figueiredo (PT)

Jorge Batista da Cruz (PT)

Ulisses Relvas (PT)

RACE FACTS - Absent at the Monza 1,000-kms, and started from rank 10, the #16 Dome S101 is one of the serious outsiders for Le Mans victory. The car moves easily into fourth position after one hour of racing and seems able to maintain that position, when shortly before the end of the third hour Justin Wilson signals serious gear selection problems. Every time he changes down a gear te car goes in neutral. An internal change of the gears cannot longer be avoided.  When the repair is finished the car is called back in by the ACO race officials, who have insisted that the gear cluster changed during their earlier problem is re-installed. Their insistance being based on the fact that that this is not permissible... Everyone else seems mystified by this interpretation. The ACO allegedly claims that the Dutch team changed the gearbox casing and the gear cluster, while the team maintains that it only changed the cluster. Wilson and friends are allowed to rejoin the track, but under appeal. They come back 12 laps down in 36th place. During the following hours the #16 Dome is nearly as fast as the two Audis setting the pace, and the car is in tenth position, 13 laps behind the leader.  At 02.00h the car is ninth. Six laps are lost in the garage during the eleventh hour when the front brakes are to be changed. At mid-race we find the car in rank 11, 21 laps down. Except for a fourth gearbox cluster replacement - costing 16 minutes, shortly after 5.00h - the car has a troublefree race during the following hours, and after 18 hours it's back in seventh position, headed by the three Audis, the two Pescarolos and the Prodrive Ferrari. Difference with the leader is now 26 laps. A fifth gearbox cluster replacement shortly after drops the car from 7th into 15th position, now passed by the #15 Dome. After some consistent racing Tom Coronel and Justin Wilson can bring the car again in the top-10 with two hours to go. On his out lap Ralph Firman, however, goes off the road, right in the tire wall, followed by a spin at the Playstation Chicane. The seroiusly damaged car will stay the last hour in the pits, dropping in the standings to the 19th place. Later the car will be disqualified for its illegal (sic) gearbox change.