CrowdStrike by APR Takes Long-Awaited Rolex 24 LMP2 Win

George Kurtz, Alex Quinn, Malthe Jakobsen and Toby Sowery took the LMP2 class victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, giving CrowdStrike Racing by APR a sought-after win after several years of near misses.

Quinn drove the No. 04 Oreca 07 Gibson across the line ahead of the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Tom Dillmann, Jeremy Clarke, Antonio Felix da Costa and Bijoy Garg.

For Kurtz in particular, the victory marks a long-awaited result, having taken class wins in most of the major international endurance races.

The 55-year old co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in LMP3 and then went on to take class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen and Motul Petit Le Mans with the Stewart Cox-led Algarve Pro LMP2 crew.

While he then also added to his 24-hour race triumphs with multiple class wins in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, victory at Daytona eluded Kurtz, most famously losing out to Proton Competition in a photo finish in 2022.

The LMP2 race started with a multi-car incident on the opening lap, with Kurtz caught up as Era Motorsport, AF Corse, TDS Racing and the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca all tangled on the first corner.

The latter took the brunt of the damage, going behind the wall and then continuing to struggle with driveshaft issues later on.

Out front, meanwhile, AO Racing’s No. 99 Oreca dominated much of the opening running, aided by the fact that Bronze-rated Hyett completed much of his drive time in the opening phase of the race.

That initially gave the ‘Spike’-liveried car an advantage, but that was wiped out as the arrival of fog led to a full course caution of more than six hours.

This meant that, as Sunday morning dawned, the momentum of the race gradually shifted to CrowdStrike by APR and Inter Europol.

The No. 99 Oreca ran an alternate strategy heading into the final four hours, but a caution with two and half hours remaining, triggered by a stoppage for the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO, resulted in a strategy reset.

The CrowdStrike by APR Oreca took the restart in the lead ahead of the two Inter Europol entries and maintained the advantage into the final hour.

The Polish squad’s pair of cars were ultimately unable to challenge the No. 04 car, with the No. 343 machine of Georgios Kolovos, Kuba Smiechowski, Nick Cassidy and Nolan Siegel completing the class podium.

Defending class winners United Autosports finished fourth with the No. 22 Oreca piloted by Paul di Resta, Daniel Goldburg, Rasmus Lindh and Gregoire Saucy.

AO Racing, having dominated much of the early running, completed the top five in class ahead of the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Oreca and No. 37 Intersport Racing entry.

A number of other cars in the class encountered trouble through the course of the race, with the No. 83 Oreca retired after Dylan Murry was hit by the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Tower Motorsports lost ground with a gearbox problem, while both Pratt Miller Motorsports and TDS Racing retired in the final hours on Sunday.

RESULTS: Rolex 24 at Daytona