DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Not much has eluded George Kurtz in his professional life, whether as the co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity technology leader CrowdStrike or as the co-driver of the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 competing in the Le Mans Prototype 2 class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Heading into 2026, Kurtz had tasted victory at three of IMSA’s most revered IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events – the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and Motul Petit Le Mans in 2023 and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2021 (Sebring was in the Le Mans Prototype 3 class). He’s also garnered class wins at two other major global 24-hour sports car races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
In 2023, Kurtz and co-driver Ben Hanley won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in LMP2 and Kurtz also won the Jim Trueman Award, which at the time had a different points-scoring allocation than coinciding with full-season points as LMP2 does now. That Jim Trueman Award secured Kurtz one of IMSA’s invitations to Le Mans for the following year.
But missing from Kurtz’s racing resume was a victory at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the prized Rolex Daytona watch that comes with it. He’d certainly come close; Kurtz watched intently from the pit box in 2023 when James Allen overtook Hanley at the line to win in LMP2 by just 0.016 of a second in an unforgettable finish. A second straight runner-up followed in 2024, although at a much larger margin after 24 hours … 6.8 seconds.
It looked like another missed opportunity year for Kurtz at the first corner in 2026, when he was caught up in a multi-car incident. But he kept the Gibson V-8 running and remained patient though a pair of unscheduled stops for repairs and a Stop +10 second penalty for a pit violation that left the CrowdStrike by APR entry two laps down and near the tail of the LMP2 field.
The fightback started as Kurtz regained the lead lap in the third hour near the end of an ironman opening stint before handing over to Toby Sowery.
Over the next six hours, Sowery and Alex Quinn moved the No. 04 into a fight for the class lead, and Kurtz held his own during his next stint until being bumped into a spin at the International Horseshoe hairpin by a lapped LMP2 competitor.
Once again, the CrowdStrike by APR crew effected repairs, and Quinn regained the lead soon after the overnight fog lifted and racing resumed. A drive-through penalty assessed to Quinn for blocking failed to blunt the No. 04 car’s momentum.
Malthe Jakobsen and Quinn finished strong to take the LMP2 class win by 5.59 seconds over a pair of ORECAs fielded by Inter Europol Competition.
Celebrating with his teammates after the breakthrough victory, it was clear that Kurtz remembered his prior near misses at Daytona in precise detail.
“Well, we finally got the monkey off our back after losing in ‘23 by, I think, 16 thousandths of a second,” he said, correctly. “It’s been something we’ve been working towards for the last couple years. We’ve been very close. This is really extra special because we’ve come so close so many times.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the team and the drivers – an all-star lineup here,” he added. “Stewart Cox and the CrowdStrike APR guys gave us a fantastic car. We had some adversity in the beginning, at the first turn, I would say. But it was great at the end.”
Kurtz was the eighth-fastest LMP2 qualifier and he blamed himself for putting the No. 04 in position to be swept into the first-corner drama that impacted nearly half the 13-car LMP2 field.
“Unfortunately, I just didn’t put it together in qualifying,” he said. “Pace-wise, the car was probably top three or four. We were not in the position that we wanted and got caught up in a bit of a mess. We were innocent bystanders and got cleaned out a bit. Everybody has a job and a role, and the Bronze role is bringing the car home and not (having) issues. You’re never going to win a race in Turn 1.
“But we put it all back together,” he added. The team got us back on track and we never gave up. I was happy that the race finished the way it did because it was really a testament to the speed of the car and the driving. We didn’t have games at the end with yellows and things of that nature that would have maybe scrambled up the order.”
Sowery, whose open-wheel career advanced to make a handful of IndyCar starts in 2024, noted that the diversity of the field ranging from ‘gentlemen’ drivers like Kurtz to four pilots with Formula 1 experience all pitted in identical equipment makes LMP2 arguably the toughest class in the WeatherTech Championship field.
“It’s definitely a spirited grid and everyone is in the same car, so it’s about been maximizing every element that’s possible,” he said. “Even if things are done as well as they can be on the day by the team, it doesn’t always go your way.
“Bronze (drivers), they vary in skills, and for us, George is super good at bringing the car back every time. He’s one of the best on the grid at any time at doing that, and I think that’s what makes him such a key element of this team.”
Kurtz’s post-Daytona joy was compounded two weeks later when he and Quinn claimed the LMP2 championship in the Asian Le Mans Series, as part of a run of three straight wins across Dubai and Abu Dhabi co-driving with Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s Louis Deletraz.
The Asian Le Mans Series title earned the CrowdStrike CEO (and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team minority owner) his fourth consecutive starting berth in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
But of more immediate concern is the 74th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, scheduled for March 18-21 at Sebring International Raceway.
“I think next up for us, hopefully, is a win in Sebring,” Kurtz said. “I’ve got a P3 (LMP3) win but not a P2 (LMP2) win there, so I think that we’ll try to add that to the list.”
