Despite holding the lead of the ten hour Motul Petit Le Mans with less than 20 minutes to go, Mike Conway and the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R’s race came to a heartbreaking end at Road Atlanta on Saturday. 

Filipe Albuquerque pulled away on the final restart with 25 minutes remaining in the 10-hour enduro and seemed headed to victory lane.

Only five minutes later, though, a brake rotor failure resulted in a trip to the pits and a seventh-place finish for the car co-driven by Joao Barbosa and Mike Conway.

Saturday evening spoiled a flawless run that saw the No. 5 Cadillac leading 150 laps while running in the top two for much of the event marked by extended green-flag stretches of racing.

The race ran at a record-setting pace in front of a reported record-setting crowd as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship closed out the 50th Anniversary season of IMSA on a very high note. 

Unfortunately the closing moments of the race rewrote what was looking to be a picture-perfect ending for the team that has been a competitive force year in and year out. 

“It’s unbelievable really,” Conway said of the late race misfortune. “We drove a good race and everyone was doing a mega job.

“We got lucky there with the yellow but I could see smoke coming off the car in some of the braking zones, but couldn’t tell what it was.

“It must have been the brakes wearing away and then it just blew up. It’s a bummer given there was just 20 minutes left, but happy to have left the race with our sister car in the lead.”