On Tuesday, CrowdStrike Racing officially outlined their plans for the 2023 season in multiple series across SRO Motorsports Group America.
In the second year of their collaboration with Riley Technologies, CrowdStrike Racing will enter the #04 Mercedes-AMG GT3 for company president/CEO/co-founder George Kurtz, and newly-crowned Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona overall winner Colin Braun, in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS series.
Kurtz and Braun begin their sixth season working together, a partnership that dates back to 2018. In 2022, CrowdStrike Racing’s first year working with Riley, the duo took three GT World Challenge victories in the Pro-Am category – and also, won overall in Race 2 at Watkins Glen International in a dramatic final minutes of the race. They led the championship for most of the season until misfortunes in the championship finale relegated them to fourth in the final championship standings.
Before Kurtz and Braun begin their pursuit of the Pro-Am titles at Sonoma Raceway on 1-2 April, however, Kurtz and the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley Mercedes will tackle the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida for the first double-header round of the GT America season on 3-4 March. Kurtz won ten out of 16 races last year en route to winning the SRO3 (GT3) class championship in 2022.
“I’m looking forward to our team building on our strong 2022 performance,” said Kurtz, the President, CEO, and co-founder of CrowdStrike. “We have great chemistry within CrowdStrike Racing by Riley that puts us in an optimal position for success. I am also thrilled to continue with Colin and Mercedes-AMG for another year and reach new milestones in our career together.”
As for Braun, he’ll be plenty busy this season with full-season campaigns in both SRO America and in IMSA – where he drives the #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 alongside Tom Blomqvist.
“It’s great to be back with CrowdStrike Racing by Riley for the 2023 SRO America season and driving alongside George once again,” Braun said. “People are recognizing George’s ability, but I have known this since our early days working together. To see his hard work and dedication culminate into a 2022 GT America championship was amazing. I’m looking forward to kicking off the season at Sonoma with the entire CrowdStrike team as we look to improve upon 2022 and contend for a championship.”
Tuesday’s announcement came just a day after it was revealed that Kurtz and Braun will enter the centennial running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 10-11 June, piloting an Oreca LMP2 prepared by Algarve Pro Racing (APR). CrowdStrike Racing with APR are already in the midst of a 2023 campaign in the four-race IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, part of the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.. Kurtz and his team-mates came within 16 milliseconds of winning their class at Daytona earlier this year.
CrowdStrike’s commitment to SRO sports car racing will also see the cyber securities company extend their long-standing agreement as the Official Internet Security and Cloud Services provider for SRO America, and the beginning of a multi-year agreement to be the title sponsor of the prestigious 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on 1-2 July.
