CrowdStrike Racing by APR announced Wednesday (Nov. 8) that Colin Braun will race for the team full-time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s LMP2 class in 2024 alongside George Kurtz. In addition, Braun will also race with the team in the 24 Hours of Le Mans next June.
For Braun, this will serve as a return of sorts to the class. In 2018, CORE autosport switched from racing a Porsche 911 RSR in the GT Le Mans class to an ORECA 07-Gibson in the then-combined Prototype class which had DPi cars and unrestricted LMP2 cars. Braun, alongside team owner Jon Bennett, scored overall victories at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America and finished second in points, only three out of the lead.
“I can’t wait to get going with CrowdStrike Racing by APR in 2024 and make a run at the LMP2 championship alongside George [Kurtz],” Braun stated. “The dedication and professionalism of CrowdStrike Racing is unmatched and I’m honored to share a seat with [Kurtz], who did such a fantastic job in 2023. It sure looks like LMP2 is going to be stacked with tough competitors, but we are ready for the challenge. IMSA racing is really special, and I look forward to another season!”
Braun comes to CrowdStrike Racing by APR from Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian. There, Braun shared the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 with Tom Blomqvist. The duo won the Rolex 24 at Daytona, along with triumphs at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park that resulted in a third-place finish in GTP points.
However, the season was marred by a 200-point penalty that was levied against the team after an illegal system of air pressure data offsets created by one of the team’s engineers was discovered weeks after the race. The penalty was actually greater than the margin between the No. 60 and the champions from Action Express Racing at the end of the season.
The Ohio-based team announced in October will be focusing solely on INDYCAR in 2024. They hope to return to IMSA in 2025 at the earliest.
The environment will be familiar for Braun. This past summer, CrowdStrike Racing with APR finished 10th in LMP2 in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Kurtz, Braun and James Allen driving. That performance was good enough to win the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass.
The team’s bid to return to race at Le Mans is locked in as a result of Kurtz winning the Jim Trueman Award, an honor given to the best amateur racer in IMSA’s LMP2 class. That grants one of three IMSA auto-invites to Le Mans. The others went to Action Express Racing for winning the GTP championship and Brendan Iribe of Inception Racing for winning the Bob Akin Award in GTD.
In addition to Le Mans earlier this year, Braun has raced alongside Kurtz in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS off and on for the last three years. However, that team was not associated with Algarve Pro Racing like the LMP2 team is. The SRO America effort was CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports.
Braun and Kurtz are fresh off of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am championship in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. In 13 races, the duo claimed three overall victories (Sonoma Race No. 2, NOLA Motorsports Park Race No. 2 and VIR Race No. 2), along with three additional class wins.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
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