CrowdStrike Racing’s George Kurtz and CJ Moses will be part of a 29-car field to kick-start the GT America Powered by AWS racing season in Florida this weekend. The pair will participate in two 40-minute, single-driver races as part of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Fla.) weekend and the first of two street races for the series.
Kurtz, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of CrowdStrike, will pilot the No. 04 CrowdStrike/AWS Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the newCrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsports team. Kurtz was a two-time winner in GT America debut season in 2021. He returns to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 platform after finishing second in the global Mercedes GT3 Championship in 2021.This will be Kurtz’s first appearance at the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg street circuit since 2018. He posted a third-place class finish in 2017.
“We are very excited to kick off our racing season in the vibrant city of St. Petersburg, that has enthusiastically embraced this event,” Kurtz said. “Last year’s debut season for GT America was a great learning experience, and it was good to watch the series grow in popularity. I have no doubt that this year’s championship will be bigger and better. I’m looking forward to the first event of our CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsports team.”
Moses, chief information security officer (CISO) for Amazon Web Services (AWS), is set to compete in the new GT America program, driving the No. 58 CrowdStrike/AWS AudiSport R8 LMS GT2 for select races under the GMG Racing banner. The St. Petersburg venue was the site of Moses’ professional debut in 2019 – also in an Audi R8 for GMG. He posted a top-10 finish in his first race and is expecting to improve on that result this weekend.
“Street races are great additions to our program as they provide a challenge compared to traditional road courses,” Moses said. “It’s a great learning experience as I continue to become familiar with the CrowdStrike/AWS Audi R8 LMS GT2. It’s a much different car than I’m used to with more power but not as much downforce and grip than the Mercedes-AMG I raced last year. But, I’m up and ready for that challenge. This event will be all about discipline and learning. There’s no reason I can’t challenge for a podium and victory.”
The event also sets the stage for CrowdStrike – a leader in cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity and data – to capitalize on its partnership with SRO Motorsport America, which is the sanctioning body for GT America. CrowdStrike continues its role as Official Internet and Cloud Security Partner for 2022, which includes securing SRO global entities with the industry-leading CrowdStrike Falcon platform and participating in SRO VIP race experiences. Through this partnership, CrowdStrike showcases its achievements on the track, as well as its capabilities in combating online threats and stopping breaches, to a global audience.
Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud, the Falcon Platform provides unprecedented levels of security to automatically stop data breaches and attacks like ransomware by protecting the most critical areas of risk: endpoints, cloud workloads, identity and data. Like its racing teams, CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform delivers superior performance at speeds that are unrivaled. The SRO America competition provides yet another opportunity to tell the CrowdStrike story.
The CrowdStrike Falcon also features prominently on the race cars for both Kurtz and Moses, making it easy for fans to spot each of the CrowdStrike Racing entries throughout the year. Emphasizing CrowdStrike’s commitment to rapid detection and response, the company will present the “Fastest Lap” award for the second year, recognizing the driver with the fastest lap time in each series over the weekend.
The GT America Powered by AWS season begins on the streets of St. Petersburg from Thursday through Saturday. Race One is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET on Friday, followed by Race Two at 11 a.m. ET. Each round will stream live on theSRO Motorsports YouTube channel.
For more information, visitCrowdStrikeRacing.com. Follow #CrowdStrikeRacing on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for updates.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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