DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — George Kurtz and Orey Fidani are both previous recipients of IMSA’s Jim Trueman Award and Bob Akin Bronze Cup Award, respectively.
But adding multiple wins to their resumes is what keeps them going as two of the top sportsmen drivers in the IMSA paddock.
Kurtz won the Jim Trueman Award as the championship-winning Bronze-rated driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, while Fidani won his third straight Bob Akin Award as the top-scoring Bronze-rated driver in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD).
IMSA awards invitations to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans to each season’s Jim Trueman Award and Bob Akin Award winners. These two awards are named for successful “sportsman” racers who made a significant impact on the sport. Both awards shine the spotlight on Bronze-rated drivers, many of whom are like Trueman and Akin – businesspeople whose passion for racing drove their deep involvement in motorsport.
Trueman is best known as the founder of the Red Roof Inns hotel chain and former owner of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He was an enthusiastic amateur racer who formed Truesports Racing, the team that guided Bobby Rahal to victory in the 1986 Indianapolis 500.
Kurtz’s enthusiasm has grown over the bulk of his driving career, as an IMSA paddock regular for the 2020s, first in Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) before moving up to LMP2.
When he won the Jim Trueman Award last in 2023, it came with a caveat. The points-scoring structure at the time did not mirror the full WeatherTech Championship points structure. So he didn’t win the LMP2 title but instead finished second in that category.
Nonetheless, the stalwart of the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 had a dream 2026 season behind the wheel.
It started with an LMP2 win at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, checking a major endurance race box that had not yet been ticked. It carried through to summer with an LMP2 Pro/Am win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And it ended with an LMP2 Motul Petit Le Mans win, one spot ahead of nearest championship rival Jeremy Clarke in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07.
Kurtz’s IMSA teammates included full-season co-driver Alex Quinn (pictured above), Michelin Endurance Cup driver Toby Sowery and Rolex 24 fourth driver Malthe Jakobsen, all of whom were integral to the achievement.
“It’s been elusive; I think it’s just sort of a crowning achievement,” Kurtz said of winning the championship. “We talked about the level of the drivers in IMSA just in general. When you look up and down the P2 lineup, it’s stacked. You have great drivers, some of the best literally in the world.
“To be able to put it all on the line in a one-race shootout that had so many ups and downs, to actually have it all fall into place to get the win and the championship after so much hard work that we put in, the team put in, it’s a lifelong dream.
“I’ve won other championships in other series, but to win an IMSA championship is a crowning achievement for me, and the rest of the team as well.”
Akin, the longtime president of Hudson Wire Co., was a standout driver and entrant in the IMSA championship in the 1970s and ‘80s. He won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in 1979 and 1986, a year in which he also won IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class and overall championship. Akin’s winning average speed at Sebring, achieved in a Porsche 962 with co-drivers Hans-Joachim Stuck and Jo Gartner, stood as the race record for 23 years. Akin’s Sebring co-driver Stuck was an inductee to the 2026 IMSA Hall of Fame class.
Fidani (pictured with the 13 Autosport hat on, with full-season co-driver Matt Bell) completed his path to a third consecutive Bob Akin Award, although it was not straightforward. It was aided by his success in the five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races, where he outscored chief rival Brendan Iribe.
The Bob Akin Award points structure scores points to GTD cars with a Bronze-rated driver entered; it ranged anywhere from three to seven cars per race this season. The top Bronze-rated car gets first-place points, second gets second-place points, third gets third-place points, and so on through the remainder of entrants.
Driving the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R for the renamed 13 Autosport, as Fidani took over the former AWA outfit prior to 2026, the Canadian scored 1,580 of his 3,110 Bob Akin Award points in these races. Iribe scored 1,400 of his 3,100 Bob Akin Award points in the endurance rounds in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO.
That’s a key distinction because it notes the 13 Autosport car finished higher more frequently when there were more Bronze-entered cars. The 10-point total gap for the season means any one spot in any race could have made the difference.
At Motul Petit Le Mans, the Nos. 70 and 13 cars finished third and fourth among the six Bronze-rated cars. Fidani’s No. 13 car he shared with longtime teammates Matt Bell and Lars Kern had a one-spot buffer it was able to use to its advantage. Barely.
“Everyone’s been working really hard for this and we’re already excited to go back to Le Mans,” Fidani said. “I’d have to say this is more satisfying than a year ago. But it was very close between our two teams. This was a tough one for sure and very close between us and them.
“But we came out on top and made it happen once again. I probably did about 10,000 steps in the last hour, walking all over down the pit lane because I couldn’t stand in one spot anymore. But now that it’s over, it’s incredible how all this work paid off.”
