DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — CrowdStrike Racing by APR claimed victory in a very competitive 13-car Le Mans Prototype 2 class, overcoming a first-lap incident seconds into the 24-hour race to regroup and win.
It went a long way to avenge a photo-finish runner-up showing for the team’s ORECA LMP2 07 two years ago at Daytona.
That memory, when the No. 04 lost by 0.016 seconds, was seared into the memory of team owner and Bronze-rated co-driver George Kurtz.
The No. 04 also finished second a year later, with Kurtz and two of his 2026 co-drivers – Malthe Jakobsen and Toby Sowery – on board then. Along with fourth driver Alex Quinn, all were elated to nail down the first Rolex 24 win for each of them.
The No. 04 recovered from that Lap 1 incident Saturday – collected in a multi-car melee heading into Turn 1 – but went on to lead often and convincingly. Its healthy 5.590-second win over the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA marked the largest margin of victory in the four classes competing in the 60-car field. Inter Europol’s second entry, the No. 343 ORECA, completed the LMP2 class podium.
“Fantastic car and it was great in the end,” Kurtz said. “We had some adversity in the beginning, the first turn. We were innocent bystanders and got cleaned out a bit, but the team got us back on track and we never gave up. Really this has been a lifelong dream and we finally got it done.”
The CrowdStrike drivers acknowledged that the LMP2 class was particularly competitive this weekend. Surviving close calls and rebounding from contact was absolutely part of the winning formula this year. The No. 04 led 223 laps, including 111 of the last 120 when it counted most.
“Watching George get wiped out at the start, LMP2 I’d argue is probably the toughest class in the IMSA field,” Sowery said. “Everybody is in the same car and it’s all about maximizing every other thing possible. Even if things are done as well as they can be on the day by the team, it doesn’t always go your way. For me, it’s about experiencing grit, but we have a great lineup and so we should be one of the teams on the beneficiary of that.”
The No. 99 AO Racing ORECA, which led 298 laps before finishing fifth, took the LMP2 Michelin Endurance Cup top honors on the day.
