End of the road for Lola/Dome partnership.

The partnership between Lola Cars International Ltd and Dome Cars will come to a close at the end of 2004 after fulfilling its commitment of breaking in to the Formula Three market.

From 2005, Lola will concentrate on the European market while Dome will return to its native Japan. The two year development programme between the two companies ceases with both parties having gained valuable experience and new found expertise from the venture which has seen close and effective co-operation on a technical and commercial level.

In what was a partnership unique to modern race car projects, Lola and Dome started designing the F106 in the late summer of 2002 before first testing the car on Christmas Day of the same year. The close collaboration between the two companies continues with British Lola-Dome driver Danny Watts testing for the M-Tec Dome Mugen-Honda team at Suzuka last week.

Rupert Manwaring, Managing Director of Lola said; "The partnership between ourselves and Dome was very satisfying in that we started out together with an enormous challenge to win, in what is, apart from F1, the most competitive multi chassis single seater series in the world. We did that, and the partnership worked well and ran its full length with both sides learning a great deal from the development. I would like to thank Dome Cars for being a thoroughly dedicated partner during this important project."

The Lola-Dome F106 has, so far, won a total of 18 races in its first 2 years of competition, although Dallara still dominates the key British F3 and F3 Euroseries markets.

Martin Birrane, chairman of the Lola Group said; "Our combined expertise has enabled us to enter and succeed in a discipline which is competitive and technically challenging. These are two requisites that suit both Lola and Dome perfectly and we are extremely proud to have taken on the challenge with such a professional partner. I would like to think that both companies are now more enriched for this positive experience and we can now both look forward to a renewed attack with new chassis for the new regulations."

This years Lola-Dome F106/04 which will be available available for the Scholarship class in British F3 next season concludes its British F3 campaign at Brands Hatch this weekend with Promatecme's Watts seventh in the overall standings. The penultimate rounds of the Japanese F3 series also take place on Saturday at Mine where Brazilian Joao Paulo De Olveira is battling for the Championship in his M-Tec Lola-Dome Mugen-Honda.