No. 10 WTR Andretti Acura Stops On Track in Hour 9

Acura became the first GTP manufacturer to hit major trouble in the Rolex 24 at Daytona as the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti machine of Filipe Albuquerque came to a stop on track in hour nine.

Albuquerque had been running in third place, behind the No. 31 and No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.Rs of Pipo Derani and Sebastien Bourdais, when he pulled off course at Turn 3 with a loss of power.

The stricken Acura ARX-06 could not be restarted, and had to be recovered back to the pits as the full-course caution was called for the eighth time.

An Acura spokesperson explained the issue had been traced to the wiring harness, which was in the process of being replaced in what is expected to be a lengthy stop for repairs.

Derani had retaken the lead in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac around the eight-hour mark following the previous caution, triggered by the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 stopping on track amid ongoing alternator problems, passing Josef Newgarden’s No. 7 Penske Porsche 963.

At the subsequent round of stops, Derani maintained the lead as the second of the factory Porsches, the No. 6 car of Kevin Estre, emerged as his nearest challenger.

That was until Estre was hit by a 10-second stop-and-hold penalty for “failure to adhere to the controlled powertrain parameters”, dropping the No. 6 Porsche to ninth in class.

That allowed Cadillac to re-establish a one-two at the head of the order, although the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Philippi was able to jump up to second behind Derani at the following round of stops under caution.

Jenson Button was third aboard the surviving WTR Andretti Acura, the No. 40 car, ahead of Bourdais and the No. 7 Porsche in which Felipe Nasr took over from Newgarden.

In LMP2, the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson led the way, with PJ Hyett taking over from Alex Quinn at the pitstops, ahead of Pato O’Ward in the No. 2 United Autosports car.

Three cars moved to the front of the GTD Pro field by opting not to stop under caution, with Tommy Milner leading the class aboard the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsport entry from the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Seb Priaulx and the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 of Christopher Mies.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 that had been leading the class prior to the latest caution was shuffled all the way back to eighth, with nine cars still on the lead lap.

GTD was led by the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz ahead of two Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos, the No. 57 Winward Racing car of Philip Ellis, and the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports car of Mikael Grenier.

SunEnergy1 Racing’s GTD Pro class Mercedes also dropped out with fuel pressure problems, becoming the first non-LMP2 retirement of the race.