Acura’s ARX-06, built to the new-for-2023 LMDh rules format and featuring an electrical hybrid system, came firing out of the blocks by taking a 1-2 finish in the Daytona 24 Hours.
But it then encountered a mechanical problem that led to its cars shedding left-rear wheels in some subsequent races.
The issues affected Acura in the longer-distance races at Sebring (12 hours) and Watkins Glen (six hours) with the Meyer Shank Racing entry losing its left-rear wheel in the closing stages of the former, while the sister Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport car suffered a similar failure at the latter.
The MSR car was forced to retire on the spot, while the WTR machine rejoined – only to later suffer a brake failure, which team boss Wayne Taylor said was related to the initial problem.
It led to Acura focusing on a fix that Honda Performance Development chief David Salters, who runs the program, believes has prevented the issue from happening again.
“That’s on us, really,” Salters told Autosport. “Not our finest moment, but these things happen. You understand it and you fix it.”
He explained of the issue: “The actual loads that these cars generate are a lot higher than the DPi car, so you need to make sure you do a good job of estimating that.
“We’ve got traction control putting pulses into everything and it was all so new that we’re learning as you go, and you have quality issues linked to that. Amongst all that you can end up with problems and you ignore them at your peril.”
Source: Autosport