• George Kurtz, Jon Bennett, Colin Braun place second in wild LMP3 six-hour race 
• Trio earn second LMP3 podium finish of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Series
• CrowdStrike presents Endurance, Team Speed Award for Sebring 12 Hours

WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 29, 2022) – CrowdStrike Racing and CORE autosport celebrated on the podium for the second time this year in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a second-place finish Sunday in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

George Kurtz, Jon Bennett and Colin Braun partnered up to complete 153 laps for 520.2 miles in the No. 54 CrowdStrike/Motul/FLEX-BOX Ligier JS P320. It’s the second straight runner-up finish for the trio in the Six Hours and adds to a third-place finish in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

It capped off a strong weekend for cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which is in its first season as an Official Partner of IMSA – the sanctioning body for the WeatherTech Championship.

Kurtz, Bennett and Braun weathered a number of challenges to grab trophies at the end of a chaotic six hours. The race saw five full-course caution periods in the opening two hours – all of which involved other LMP3 competitors. Bennett drove the first 96 minutes after starting third. 

CrowdStrike co-founder and CEO Kurtz took over during a pit stop under the fourth full-course caution period. He put in solid and consistent laps as the race finally got into a long green-flag period. He drove an interrupted one-and-a-half hours before handing off to Braun just past the race’s halfway point from sixth place in class.

Braun, Kurtz’s teammate in Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS, drove the rest of the way. The No. 54 CORE Ligier had moved up to second place before a weather delay, and Braun drew even closer in the final 30-minute run to the finish by setting the fastest LMP3 lap of the race.

The result continued an impressive global racing season so far for Kurtz. He leads the Drivers Championship in both GT World Challenge America and GT America Powered by AWS with five wins between the two series. He also finished second in January’s 24 Hours of Dubai.

“We had some tire issues, so the car wasn’t handling quite the way we needed it to during my stint,” Kurtz said. “We just tried to drive through it and give the best pace we had and put it in a good position for Colin to finish it out. When Colin got in, he did his heroics. We’re glad to come in P2. I think it’s good solid points for the team. 

“I believe we would have been in a better position to win without the red flag,” Kurtz added. “Colin was pretty quick, and I think it would have come our way given the yellows and the pass arounds. Still, it’s a strong result.”

Prior to the start of the Sahlen’s Six Hours, IMSA presented the CrowdStrike-sponsored Endurance, Teamwork and Speed Award for the prior endurance race, the Sebring 12 Hours.  Sebring and the Sahlen’s Six Hours are part of the Michelin Endurance Cup – a collection of the WeatherTech Championship’s four long-distance races.

The CrowdStrike Endurance, Teamwork and Speed Award goes to one team in each WeatherTech class that displays the unique qualities needed to be successful in long and grueling IMSA endurance races – the same essential skills required to fight adversaries in the cybersecurity world.

The Sebring awards went to JDC-Miller Motorsports, Corvette Racing, DragonSpeed USA, Sean Creech Motorsports and Gradient Racing.

The next race for Kurtz in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Saturday, October 1. He returns to SRO competition July 22-24 from Watkins Glen.