Banner Year for Kurtz, Quinn Sees Bookend Wins and Title
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – George Kurtz was asked in the Motul Petit Le Mans press conference after winning the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) championship if “he’d had a better day in racing.”
In 2026 alone, he’d have a tough time choosing which day would best answer that question.
The co-driver of the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 capped off a dream campaign both domestically in IMSA and internationally in other championships at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
After a season-long battle with Inter Europol Competition, the No. 04 ORECA of Kurtz, full-season co-driver Alex Quinn and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup third driver Toby Sowery emerged ahead by just under seven tenths of a second in a roller coaster race.
The Motul Petit Le Mans win marked Kurtz and Quinn’s third major endurance race win of the year, following their LMP2 win in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona and a midseason triumph in the LMP2 Pro/Am division at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Add in an Asian Le Mans Series title achieved in the winter in between Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and a run of wins for the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team he co-owns, and it’s fair to call 2026 the best year to date of Kurtz’s motorsports career.
With the win at Michelin Raceway, the trio also won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and Kurtz claimed the Jim Trueman Award. The latter is IMSA’s honoring of the top-rated Bronze driver in LMP2 that carries with it an automatic invitation to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Though Kurtz has won the Jim Trueman Award before (in 2023), he did so in a previous points scoring system where it did not directly correspond with the LMP2 points standings.
In a year where the caliber, quality and quantity of Bronze-rated drivers grew in IMSA LMP2, beating them all to an IMSA championship marked a significant career achievement.
“It’s been elusive,” Kurtz said post-race. “I think it’s just sort of a crowning achievement. We talked about the level of the drivers in IMSA just in general. When you look up and down the P2 lineup, it’s stacked. You have great drivers, some of the best literally in the world.
“You have arguably a spec car and you have incredible professional drivers. I think ‘Herculean’ understates what this guy (Sowery) did in the rain. I mean, it was crazy.
“To be able to put it all on the line in a one-race shootout that had so many ups and downs, to actually have it all fall into place to get the win and the championship after so much hard work that we put in, the team put in, it’s a lifelong dream.
“I’ve won other championships in other series, but to win an IMSA championship is a crowning achievement for me, and the rest of the team as well.”
The championship for Kurtz and Quinn came largely from consistency, but also slightly better race results compared to Jeremy Clarke and Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol ORECA.
Kurtz and Quinn won twice and added three consecutive runner-up finishes at Watkins Glen International, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America. A ninth place at Indianapolis marked the No. 04 car’s only finish outside the top five.
Clarke, a four-time Motul Pole Award winner, helped the No. 43 car score 50 more points in qualifying this season than the No. 04. The No. 04 car, meanwhile, scored 70 more points in races – and that in-race margin produced the 20-point gap at year’s end ensuring Kurtz and Quinn beat Clarke and Dillmann for the title.
Quinn highlighted the Algarve Pro Racing (APR) crew and team behind them that put the car on track.
“I said it before and I say it again, we’re so lucky to have this team behind us,” said the Englishman, a rising prototype star who just completed his first full IMSA season. “We’ve got some fantastic engineers. Without a doubt the engineering in this team is spectacular. The calmness they have, the strategic brains that they have, is very impressive.
“In times like that, we also had a similar case in Road America where we fell back quite late in the race, but they got us back in the race quite quickly. In some ways it makes our life easy. It’s just very nice to have them behind us.”
Sowery was particularly hailed for his contributions through the ever-evolving, mixed weather conditions at Michelin Raceway. Sowery, who now lives in the Indianapolis area, equated it to his English upbringing.
“First few laps were pretty sketchy,” he laughed. “To know you have two or three drivers on wets trying to get past you in Turn 1 isn’t easy, but it’s part of racing. We’re not here to make friends, we’re here to fight for positions.
“I had a good time. Didn’t make any mistakes, thankfully, and brought the car back. Being English, we’re used to that sketchy weather.”
Clarke and Dillmann ended a hard luck second in the championship. They matched Kurtz and Quinn with two wins, back-to-back at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America. But they only had two other podiums along with two finishes of sixth or worse. This championship was won on the margins, and the No. 43 entry produced a title worthy season. Alas, they came up just short.
Three other teams visited victory lane. The trio of Phil Fayer, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA. PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron and Jonny Edgar delivered AO Racing its first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup LMP2 win at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen for its No. 99 ORECA. And the one-off pairing of 2024 IMSA LMP2 champion Nick Boulle and 2024 LMP2 Rolex 24 class winner Christian Rasmussen brought the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA to the win at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Though Daniel Goldburg did not win in the second United entry, the No. 22 ORECA, he finished third in the championship ahead of 2025 LMP2 champions Hyett and Cameron for AO. Early-race leading pace for the No. 99 car did not produce enough results to keep them atop the charts, and they spent the majority of the season playing catch-up.
The LMP2 grid ranged from nine to 13 cars across the seven races but featured 11 on average. Ten of the 13 cars scored at least one podium finish in a highly competitive season.
But for Kurtz, erasing a near-miss in 2023 to one of IMSA’s longtime Bronze-rated aces – Ben Keating – was a satisfying end to a career season.
“From my perspective, this is probably one of the best seasons I’ve ever had with all the wins up and down the board, to crown it with the championship,” Kurtz said.
“We’ve come so close. In ’23 we lost (by only a few points) in the championship. We were close at Daytona in ’23. This year we won Daytona, won this. For me it’s a year of redemption.”