SUNNYVALE, Calif. – CrowdStrike and CrowdStrike Racing will return from the SRO Motorsports America summer break in a big way as the series heads to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., this weekend for a three-day festival of speed.
Speed is doubly important in everything CrowdStrike does. As one of the world’s foremost cybersecurity providers, CrowdStrike prides itself in not only speedy responses to breaches but also quickly developing protective measures and tools.
At racetracks like Wisconsin’s Road America – and others on the SRO Motorsports America schedule – speed obviously is the name of the game. Drivers must be quick on track, engineers must rapidly develop race strategies and pit crews must execute pit stops and make needed repairs and adjustments in lightning-fast times.
Those qualities will be on full display throughout the Road America event with DXDT Racing, which will feature a strong brand presence from CrowdStrike.
THE CROWDSTRIKE EXPERIENCE
For 2021, CrowdStrike continues as Official Internet and Cloud Security Partner of SRO Motorsports America. The Road America weekend adds another layer with CrowdStrike as presenting sponsor for the full SRO America weekend and the premier Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS race.
Series competitors will race around the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course in two separate races with each lasting 90 minutes each. Both contests will feature two drivers sharing some of the fastest Grand Touring (GT) cars in the world – including an entry from CrowdStrike Racing.
Prior to the race, CrowdStrike will host its second consecutive CXO Summit. The meetings are unique and exclusive programs at select SRO Motorsports America events that bring cybersecurity leaders together with executives from CrowdStrike and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to discuss trends and areas of opportunity within the industry.
The Road America CXO Summit hosts will be Michael Sentonas, Chief Technology Officer of CrowdStrike; and Angelo Comazzetto, Office of the Chief Information Security Officer for AWS. The extensive discussion on challenges facing organizations in cybersecurity will carry on throughout the weekend at the track, where it will include George Kurtz, CEO of CrowdStrike; and CJ Moses, Deputy CISO of AWS.
As Official Internet and Cloud Security Provider for SRO’s Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS, CrowdStrike is uniquely positioned to showcase its methodologies and tools for combating online threats and breaches. 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.
START YOUR ENGINES
George Kurtz and Colin Braun will share the No. 04 CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the Saturday and Sunday races. The pairing has two victories to its credit this season and won a year ago at Road America. Kurtz and Braun recorded a third-place podium finish in their most recent GT World Challenge outing at Virginia International Raceway in June.
"Road America is my favorite track in the U.S.," said Kurtz, who will also field a CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT America Powered by AWS series during the weekend. "Colin and I had an amazing win at this track last season. We are hopeful the time we spent preparing and testing for this track pays dividends.”
Maximizing speed and effort will be key on the racetrack – a mirror of what CrowdStrike puts forth every day in the world of cybersecurity. Braun would like nothing better than to solidify CrowdStrike’s reputation with another strong showing in Wisconsin.
“I feel like the entire CrowdStrike Racing operation performs well at Road America,” Braun said. “Winning there with George last year was a big highlight of our season. This is one of my favorite tracks, as well as George’s, so that always helps you have the right mindset entering the weekend. Winning the IMSA race a few weeks ago in the CrowdStrike LMP3 car has me motivated to continue that streak. I know we will work hard to deliver good results and stay in the championship hunt. We had a great test and George’s pace was really good, I am excited!”
Kurtz looks to add to CrowdStrike Racing’s honor roll at Road America in the pair of 40-minute races in GT America. He’s coming off a street racing weekend at Nashville where he posted a pair of top-10 finishes on a very challenging new circuit.
Last season, Road America saw Kevin Boehm seize control of the Touring Car America’s TCA championship by sweeping the weekend with three victories. Now in the TC category with his No. 9 CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Honda Civic Type R TC, Boehm is hoping more Road America magic will keep him squarely in the championship hunt. He currently stands second with two victories.
“Our first season in Touring Car really took off at Road America a year ago,” Boehm said. “The championship was competitive in 2020, and this year’s TC category is even tougher. There are so many good drivers and good cars that can win any week. Having a long break since VIR has provided some time to do a deeper dive into making the CrowdStrike/AWS/DXDT Honda better for the remaining rounds. I’m confident heading to Road America.”
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.
OPERATION MOTORSPORT
A key relationship that CrowdStrike, AWS and DXDT Racing are proud to continue 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 CrowdStrike SRO Motorsports America weekend at Road America runs from Friday, August 27 through Sunday, August 29. CBS Sports Network will air live coverage of Sunday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS race at 2 p.m. ET. More details, including a livestream with CrowdStrike-focused commentary, can be found at crowdstrikeracing.com/wisconsin.