Riley: “A Lot of Pressure” to Continue Kurtz’s Win Streak

Photo: Patrick Hecq/SRO

Bill Riley said there’s “a lot of pressure” ahead of his team’s first CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa following a streak of success that George Kurtz is riding into the Belgian endurance classic.

Riley is fielding a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with support from SPS automotive performance, in the Pro-Am class, featuring Kurtz, Colin Braun, Felipe Fraga and Ian James at the wheel.

It comes following a stretch of races that has seen Bronze-rated Kurtz claim LMP2 Pro-Am class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, sweep the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend at Virginia International Raceway and come out on top in LMP2 in last weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, all in consecutive weekends.

Two of the victories came with Riley, which is responsible for CrowdStrike Racing’s GT3 operations in North America, with that extending to SRO Motorsports Group’s blue-ribboned event for the first time.

“We had a good test day [on Tuesday] and we had a good [pre-event] test here a couple weeks ago. So I think we’re looking pretty good,” Riley told Sportscar365.

“It’s a first event for our team. Obviously not a first event for SPS or CrowdStrike. So we kind of have a lot of people helping us.”

Riley said the team’s entire GTWC America crew are on-site, having prepped the car, most recently used in last year’s Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS, at SPS’s workshop in Germany prior to the event.

While having fielded cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the last two decades, Riley said the Spa effort is different in a number of ways, including working with an established European team, which has leant four mechanics.

“Luckily, we’re with SPS and they’ve done this kind of stuff forever and they’re helping us out quite a bit,” he said.

“So it was great to get aligned with them for sure. It’s all going pretty good.”

When asked about the continuing the success into Belgium this weekend, Riley admitted they have to live up to high expectations.

In addition to his recent run of success, Kurtz claimed Bronze Cup class honors in last year’s Spa race.

“We won both races at VIR, then George won The Glen. We won the Glen [in LMP3],” Riley said. “Of course, George has a big Le Mans win. So we’re kind of like we’re all rocking and rolling here.

“I just hope I don’t let anybody down, you know. It’s a lot of pressure!

“But it’s just great to be here. It’s such a great event. CrowdStrike is a great group to be aligned with. So for me, it’s really a good deal.”

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