SUNNYVALE, Calif. – CrowdStrike and CrowdStrike Racing are pulling out all the stops for the close of the SRO Motorsports America season and the 2021 finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
CrowdStrike Racing will be a force on the track with a full complement of racecars across three different SRO categories: Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS, Pirelli GT America Powered by AWS and TC America Presented by Skip Barber Racing Schools.
The premier race of the weekend is the eight-hour round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, bringing together the best manufacturers, drivers and teams for an endurance battle around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course inside the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In addition, CrowdStrike’s robust activation program will ensure maximum exposure and awareness for the brand as it concludes another positive season as a stakeholder in SRO Motorsports America.
THE CROWDSTRIKE EXPERIENCE
For 2021, CrowdStrike has enjoyed its role as Official Internet and Cloud Security Partner of SRO Motorsports America. It’s not just a title but an opportunity for the world’s leading provider of cybersecurity tools and solutions.
CrowdStrike is uniquely positioned to showcase its methodologies and tools for combating online threats and breaches to a global audience. The company supplies its award-winning Falcon platform to all SRO worldwide entities.
Falcon provides an unprecedented level of security by stopping data breaches with a complete set of cloud-delivered technologies that prevent attacks from malware to more critical invasions. The Falcon also is the dominant feature on all CrowdStrike Racing entries in SRO America competition, another point of leverage that racing provides to tell the CrowdStrike story.
One of the highlights of every CrowdStrike activation weekend is the CXO Summit it holds in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The meetings are unique and exclusive programs at select SRO Motorsports America events that bring cybersecurity leaders together with executives from CrowdStrike and AWS to discuss trends and areas of opportunity within the industry.
The Indianapolis CXO Summit will be led by Shawn Henry, President of CrowdStrike Services.
START YOUR ENGINES
After scoring a victory a year ago at Indianapolis, the CrowdStrike Racing trio of George Kurtz, Colin Braun and Ben Keating will reunite in the No. 04 CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Sunday’s enduro.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to Indianapolis and ending our season how we started it,” Kurtz said. “The Indianapolis Eight Hours brings together many of the best GT3 competitors from around the world. We were honored to win last year’s race and expect to contend again this year.”
Kurtz and Braun, full-season teammates, have two victories to their credit this year at Sonoma and Circuit of The Americas. This weekend will feature a race-within-a-race as GT World Challenge America points will be awarded for the first three hours.
The pace of the CrowdStrike Mercedes-AMG GT3 has been strong throughout the year, and adding Keating again bolsters an already-solid entry.
“Winning the Indianapolis Eight Hours a year ago was a highlight for everyone at CrowdStrike and DXDT,” Braun said. “The event has grown in stature this year with a lot of solid competitors. It will be another tough fight but the three of us – myself, George and Ben – had good chemistry last year. There isn’t any reason why we can’t contend and be successful again.”
“I am so excited to join George and Colin for the Indy eight-hour race,” Keating said. “This race was so much fun last year, and I'm hoping we can repeat the full experience. Last year was a very tight race until we got toward the end and some of the strategy started to play out. We know that all of us get along well and are quick in the car. This is the recipe for a good endurance event. I have looked forward to this event since we kissed the bricks last year!”
In addition to the IGTC/GT World Challenge America race, CrowdStrike also will enter two Mercedes-AMG GT3s for Kurtz and CJ Moses in the single-driver Pirelli GT America Powered by AWS championship. Kurtz will pilot his familiar No. 04 entry while Moses will be in the No. 58 CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Last season’s Indianapolis event was a highlight weekend for Moses, who scored a runner-up finish in TC America and qualified on pole position.
“I really enjoy racing at Indianapolis,” Moses said. “It has an incredible history of racing with so many historic names. To be able to race a car like the Mercedes-AMG GT3 around the IMS road course will be fantastic. It’s been a huge learning process this season and I hope we can pay it off with a strong showing to close 2021.”
In TC America Powered by Skip Barber Racing Schools, Kevin Boehm will look to end his rookie season in the Touring Car category on a high note. He is coming off a runner-up finish and pole position run at Sebring to go along with victories earlier this year at Sonoma and COTA with his No. 9 CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Honda Civic Type R TC.
He enters Indianapolis still fighting for the TC Drivers Championship a year after winning TCA honors.
“This year has been a big learning experience,” Boehm said. “TC America has a lot of great racing and great competitors. Plus it has some fantastic tracks like Indianapolis. My main focus is coming away with victory at Indy and let the championship take care of itself. We can send this program into the offseason with some very positive momentum if we can accomplish that.”
TOOLS FOR THE JOB
CrowdStrike’s influence also stretches beyond its own racing activities. As Official Internet and Cloud Security Provider of SRO’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS, CrowdStrike works with SRO Motorsports America to protect scores of proprietary information such as team and driver medical and financial records, technical data, and video and digital content.
The collaboration between CrowdStrike and Amazon Web Services will play a large front-facing role in SRO America. As Global Official Cloud Provider, Global Official Machine Learning Provider and Global Technology Provider of SRO Motorsports, AWS is in a unique position to help SRO with logistics, data collection and cloud storage – the latter a key team-up area for AWS and CrowdStrike.
Among the benefits to fans is the unique “Race Vision” program, powered by AWS. It allows the series to display performance data from cars on the track in the form of informational graphics to fans on SRO America’s event live streams or television broadcasts on CBS Sports Network.
CrowdStrike’s experiential program in SRO Motorsports America includes multiple virtual elements, as well. CrowdStrike and AWS again presented an exclusive live stream of the Fanatec GT World Challenge America race with personalities adding valuable insights throughout the weekend.
CrowdStrike’s library of video content on CrowdStrikeRacing.com continued to expand, along with the once-a-month sim racing events via the CrowdStrike Cup Virtual Racing League.
OPERATION MOTORSPORT
A key relationship that CrowdStrike, AWS and DXDT Racing are proud to have continued in 2021 is the one with Operation Motorsport. A not-for-profit, OpMo provides a chance for veterans to use their skill sets in a variety of areas including paddock operations, car and tire prep, marketing, social media and other key areas that are part of a racing program.
It continues a proud tradition of CrowdStrike supporting veterans and the Operation Motorsport program. Two OpMo beneficiaries were part of Boehm’s TCA championship campaign in 2020. CrowdStrike also is a proud part of American Corporate Partners (ACP), which provides CrowdStrike mentors for service members looking to transition to the private sector.
In addition, CrowdStrike is a partner with HireMilitary to provide meaningful internship experiences to service members exiting the military via the DoD SkillBridge program.
The Indianapolis Eight Hours weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway runs from Thursday, October 14 through Sunday, October 17 and can be live-streamed at crowdstrikeracing.com/indianapolis.