Filipe Albuquerque was behind the wheel of the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 when it slowed to halt out on track and had to be recovered by a tow truck.
The car, in which he’s partnered by Ricky Taylor, Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson, had led after the opening hour after going off strategy.
It continued to run with the leading pack over the first eight hours of the race, but the issue has ruined any chance it had of featuring in the battle for victory.
“I don’t know to be honest,” Albuquerque replied when asked by NBC if he thought the problem could be fixed in the garage. “Basically, I started to report something burning at the Bus Stop.
“I thought it was the GT [car] in front, but after I passed him the smell was the same, so that’s when I reported it. When I pulled seventh gear on the straightline, the engine died – so it was like ‘er, something is funny here’.
“There was a smell of burning and, literally three seconds after, I lost all the power in the car, all the systems, no power assistance, so I just went straight. I got out [of the car] to try and check for debris on the outside emergency buttons but nothing.
“We couldn’t even tow the car, because now it’s electric the clutch doesn’t work, so it’s stuck in first gear, so that was it.”
Albuquerque believes that his Acura wasn’t realistically in the hunt for victory, and that Cadillac’s V-Series.R remains the big favorite to claim the win.
“For the win, it’s a big stretch,” he said when asked if he thought he could contend for victory. “The Cadillac, I think it feels like they already have the Formula 1-spec engine, because they passed me easily.
“I think we could fight for the podium, and I was having fun to be honest.”
Team boss Wayne Taylor added: “We at least wanted to stay on the lead lap for the first six hours or whatever, and the car appeared to be coming alive. And then he smelt something and lost power, and we have no indication where it started from.”
The No. 40 WTRA Acura earlier lost a lap when it experienced a power steering failure in the fourth hour. But the team was able to take advantage of a full-course caution to get back in touch with the leaders with Colton Herta at the wheel.
“I think we’re competitive; I’m not incredibly overjoyed, but we’re not doing terrible at the moment,” said Herta, who is partnered by full-time pilots Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, and joined by Jenson Button at the Rolex 24.
“We got the power steering fixed very quickly and we should be able to fight. I was able to pass some of the guys that seemed to be struggling more than us.”
Button was running fifth at the Hour 9 mark.
