Kurtz Wins Jim Trueman Award, Automatic Le Mans Invite

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

George Kurtz is set to return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year to defend his LMP2 Pro-Am class win, having secured an automatic invite to the French endurance classic for winning IMSA’s Jim Trueman Award.

Kurtz teamed with CrowdStrike Racing by APR co-drivers Ben Hanley and Nolan Siegel to win Saturday’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans in LMP2, which was enough to edge out Ben Keating by 50 points for the Trueman award.

The CrowdStrike co-founder and CEO entered the ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in a three-way tie with PR1/Mathiasen’s Keating and Steven Thomas of TDS Racing for the award.

“The big implication was Le Mans,” Kurtz said. “That was really the prize for us. We had to have a lot to go right to win the overall championship but the two things we were focused on was the Endurance Cup and the big one was the Le Mans entry.

“At the end of the race, with 20 minutes left, you never think there’s going to be a green flag to the end. So many emotions go through your mind. I have to give so much credit to my co-drivers and the team did such a fantastic job.

“We’re excited. Obviously we had a big year at Le Mans. We hope to go back and see where it goes.”

The Jim Trueman Award, named after the legendary gentleman driver and team owner, is awarded annually to the top-placed Bronze-rated driver in the LMP2 class, which takes into account race results but excludes qualifying points.

“I didn’t start racing out when I was a kid in go-karts, so I got there later in life,” Kurtz explained.

“Racing became a big part of what we do at CrowdStrike. It starts with Formula 1 all the way with what we do here and it’s just been part of our brand and something that’s been integral to to the company.

“We’re always trying to give back to racing as well. We obviously have young guys like Nolan with us here. He’s done a great job and I’d love to see kids come up through the ranks.

“For me, it’s always about making the sport a little bit better than you found it and it’s really exciting to win the Jim Trueman Award.”

Kurtz’s program, operated by Algarve Pro Racing, was initially only intended for the Michelin Endurance Cup races but expanded into the full season when he emerged in title contention after the opening rounds.

“When you put it all together and you think about where we started, this program in IMSA really wasn’t even on the radar until November [last year],” he said.

“We put it together in a shop out in Arizona where I live and we were originally just going to do the endurance races and but we really like the car, Stew (Stewart Cox, team owner) and the APR guys did a great job putting it together.

“We said, ‘Let’s just go for it’ and we said, ‘Let’s go for Le Mans.’

“So we put it all together and [we had] amazing success. It was something we couldn’t dream of when we started the season.”

Inception’s Iribe Claims Bob Akin Award; Intends to Use McLaren in LMGT3

The Bob Akin Award, which similarly is handed out to the top-placed Bronze-rated driver in the GTD class, meanwhile, went to Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe, who edged out Alan Brynjolfsson by just 20 points.

It came despite Iribe being forced to retire his No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo after getting collected in a multi-car accident in the second hour.

Iribe, a fellow tech entrepreneur and co-founder of the Oculus virtual reality company that was later sold to Facebook, intends to use his Le Mans auto invite to take McLaren back to Le Mans in the LMGT3 class with the Optimum Motorsport-run squad.

IMSA’s third Le Mans invite went to Action Express Racing for winning the GTP teams’ championship.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John