Tokyo-The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. today announced that following last year's success, it will again support the ADVAN KONDO Racing's entry in the Prototype Class (LMP1) at the 72nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, to be held over the June 12-June 13 weekend at the Sarthe Circuit in France. Yokohama Rubber has developed special racing tires for the Prototype Class, and these tires will be made available to ADVAN KONDO Racing, which is led by team director Masahiko Kondo.

ADVAN KONDO Racing is a racing team put together last year by KONDO Racing (headed by Masahiko Kondo) with Yokohama Rubber as the main sponsor, and called the as the "ADVAN Le Mans Project". This year, too, the team is an all-Japanese effort, with Yokohama ADVAN tires, a DOME chassis, an M-TEC engine, and three Japanese drivers -- Hiroki Kato, Ryo Michigami, and Hayanari Shimoda. In 2003, despite a lot of technical problems, the team managed to complete the race, finishing 13th in its first attempt at Le Mans. This year, the team is aiming to finish with an even higher position, and has already produced a succession of good times in testing at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in March.

In addition to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, ADVAN KONDO Racing is entering the Monza 1000 km, one of the races in the Le Mans Endurance Series. In Japan, the team races in the Super Taikyu Series. At Le Mans, Yokohama Rubber is also providing tires to Choroq Racing, Seikel Motorsport, and the Morgan Works Race Team in support of their entries in the LM-GT Class.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans has a long and distinguished tradition beginning in 1923, and is known as being particularly punishing on both cars and drivers. There are two racing categories, the Prototype Class (LMP1/LMP2) for cars that are specially designed for racing, and the GT Class (LM-GTS/LM-GT) for production-based cars.