Kurtz on “Fresh Start Year” in Quest for Elusive Rolex 24 Win

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

George Kurtz  is looking forward to a “fresh start year” as he returns to full-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with CrowdStrike Racing by APR, looking to break a streak of two consecutive runner-up finishes in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The Bronze-rated driver is set to share the No. 04 Oreca 07 Gibson with Malthe Jakobsen, Toby Sowery and Colton Herta in the Florida endurance classic.

Daytona will mark Kurtz’s first WeatherTech Championship start since last year’s round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, after which he took a leave of absence from racing due to increased business commitments in the wake of CrowdStrike’s global outage.

“Obviously, it’s a passion,” Kurtz told Sportscar365 about his LMP2 return.

“It’s something that is associated with CrowdStrike. We do a lot of customer events with it. And it’s something I take really seriously.

“So to get back to it is something the team has been working on for the last six months, and we’re excited to kick off the season this year with obviously Daytona.”

In addition to his WeatherTech Championship program, Kurtz confirmed that he is set to take on a limited GT3 schedule, featuring a small number of GT World Challenge America powered by AWS appearances.

“I’ll do Sonoma, Long Beach, 24H Spa as it’s our race, and Indianapolis,” he said.  “Just given the schedule and everything I have going on, I couldn’t two full-time programs.

“I was supposed to do Asian Le Mans, but I passed on that this year.

“It’s still busy. I think we’ve got a good schedule, good team. Kind of a fresh start year with the new livery and everybody seems to like it.”

That livery, as Kurtz explained, originated on a non-Evo Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he drove as part of a one-off appearance in a Masters Endurance Legends race at Circuit of The Americas, which was as part of the support bill for Formula 1.

The 63rd running of the Rolex 24 will mark Kurtz’s third appearance in the LMP2 class, having notably finished second in class during the last two editions.

In 2023, the Algarve Pro-run entry famously lost out to Proton Competition when James Allen outdragged Ben Hanley in a photo finish that saw the two cars separated by just 0.016 seconds.

A year later, Kurtz, Sowery, Jakobsen and Colin Braun finished second behind Era Motorsport after a late-race duel.

“This is one where we’ve come so close,” said Kurtz.

“Obviously losing in 2023 by sixteen-thousandths of a second, the closest ever in IMSA history. We came so close and yet so far.

“We had a good showing last year but just couldn’t put it together. This is a race that like many has eluded me for a number of times that I’ve done it, more than just the last two years.

“So I think we’ve got a great car, we’ve got a great team. Excited to have Malthe as our main driver. Toby’s back, he’s fantastic, and then bounty of riches to have Colton as our fourth driver for this.

“So I think we’re trying to do everything we can to get the demon off our back on this race.”

Herta Rejoins Kurtz After Laguna Seca TCR Drive

Kurtz explained that his relationship with Herta dates back to the 2018 California 8 Hours, where he shared a Hyundai i30 N TCR with the father-and-son Herta duo in a class-winning effort.

“Obviously, given Bryan’s dramatic history in Laguna, they wanted to do this race together,” said Kurtz.

“They needed a good Bronze guy, so they called me up to ask if I wanted to do that race. So I did it. We did it in a TCR car and we won.

“I’ve stayed friends with Bryan and Colton over the years and obviously that was the year I think before he went to IndyCar.

“We had a great experience and he was fairly available. He had other things that were cooking and I asked him to do it.

“He won it two times so I think he looked at the program and said, ‘Hey, you guys have a good shot to win.’ We have good chemistry and obviously he is wicked fast.”