Crowdstrike by APR and Winward Racing secure their spots among the elite with Rolex wins

The Crowdstrike by APR and Winward Racing crews woke up this morning after the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona as winners. It wasn’t a dream.

In the LMP2 class, it was a first Rolex 24 win for the Algarve Pro Racing team, which operates the Crowdstrike Racing effort in IMSA for George Kurtz. The family-run outfit, based in Portugal, has become one of the best P2 teams worldwide over the course of the past decade, winning titles and major races in Europe, Asia and North America. But one thing was missing from the trophy cabinet for co-owners Sam and Stewart Cox, plus Kurtz, and that was a victory at Daytona.

After finishing second twice in the last three years, this year the team achieved its goal by staying calm in the face of adversity and executing a race-long strategy. It was a real test for the team, which required a methodical comeback drive from two laps down after Kurtz was a victim of the Turn 1, Lap 1, chaos in the class, taking damage after being collected by the spinning Era and TDS ORECAs.

“It was our worst nightmare,” driver Toby Sowery says, reflecting on the early setback. “The first thing you want to do is survive lap one. You know, the old corny saying: 'to finish first, first you have to finish'. Bronzes, they vary in various skills, and for us, George is super good at bringing the car back every time. He’s one of the best on the grid, if not the best at doing that, and I think that’s what makes him such a key element of this team.

“We trust him implicitly with the car, and to see him being taken out like one is quite demoralising. But then you realise you’ve still got 23 hours and 59 seconds, the rest of the whole race. Fortunately, we didn’t get too much damage. It’s how racing goes, and especially 24-hour races, there are things you can’t plan, there are things you can’t predict, but we do what we can in the situation we have.”

The IMSA ruleset allows teams to get their heads down and get laps back during cautions. By the end of hour four, APR was back in business and fighting up front. From there, the team remained in contention, even after taking a drive-through penalty on Sunday morning for blocking, a penalty that the team maintained was a consequence of weaving to keep tires warm rather than defending in an overly-aggressive manner.

In the end, it was Alex Quinn who soaked up the late pressure and led the team home following a strong drive from Malthe Jakobsen to set up the final push just before lunchtime. The team executed a late splash perfectly and retained the lead, with a winning margin of just over five seconds.

“The team has been fantastic,” says Quinn. “Anybody who knows Stew, he's a larger-than-life personality. He's a big teddy bear. Between him and some, they've done a great job with the team. It's run like a family. From everyone on the team to Mark, who builds the car, to everyone, fuel man, everything in between, it really – everyone cares, and it shows in the car.

“I was happy that we were able to finish the way we did because it was really a testament to the speed of the car and the driving. We didn't have games at the end with yellows and things of that nature that would have maybe scrambled up the order.

“I think the way we finished was that we had the best car, we had great drivers. And APR, they're the little team that could. We couldn't be prouder of them, and I couldn't be more thankful for what they've done.”

Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

GTD, meanwhile, delivered a milestone result rather than a breakthrough. Winward Racing once again proved its knack for nailing it when it matters most, claiming its third Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona victory in six years and seizing an early advantage in the 2026 IMSA GTD championship fight.

Philip Ellis was the star of the show this time for the team, defeating Magnus Racing’s Nicki Thiim in a late-race duel to give the Texas-based outfit another victory on the high banks.

By its own lofty standards, Winward’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo ran a low-profile race for much of the event. After leading early, the car ceded the top spot before the end of the third hour and did not return to the front until late in the race.

A shorter final pit stop placed Ellis between the battling Aston Martins of Thiim and Mattia Drudi (for Heart of Racing). Ellis quickly engaged Thiim in a tense fight for the lead, grabbing the position with just over 20 minutes remaining on the exit of Turn 6.

The defining moment followed shortly after, when contact in the Tri-Oval as Ellis attempted to block Thiim’s run sent the Mercedes-AMG sideways on the run towards the braking zone for Turn 1.

“It’s not ideal when you look at your teammates and team crew on the oval,” Ellis chuckles when asked about his sideways moment. “It was a fun fight with Nicki. I think I just misjudged it a little bit when he had the run, I wanted to stop his run, get the side draft off of him, and to be fair, I didn't even know that he was so close up to the wall.”

Thankfully, both cars escaped without major damage, and Ellis withstood another 10 minutes of pressure before finally breaking free on the penultimate lap to win by 1.367 seconds.

“I'm happy that we both continued and nothing bigger happened, and then that we continued on a good fight and a good show. And obviously, I'm super stoked that we came out on top,” he adds.

“To be honest, I was a bit surprised once I got by. I thought I could just drive away, and I was very surprised that he stuck with me so much… I would have preferred to stay outside the car and watch the end of the race and not be inside of it, but it was a good race. It was a hard-fought battle, very on edge.”

As changing conditions shuffled the GTD order – with more than half the class leading at some point – strategy proved decisive.

“It was super tough,” Ellis says. “It changed as well as the race went on… The team put us out in a great spot as well, with good strategy, so that was the basis of all of it.”

Ellis, Russell Ward and Indy Dontje are now three-time Rolex 24 winners together with Winward, having also triumphed in 2021 and 2024. The trio enters its fourth consecutive season in the same IMSA roles, with Ellis and Ward contesting the full campaign and Dontje returning for Michelin Endurance Cup rounds (Lucas Auer joined the team for Daytona only). Continuity and team spirit, Ward said post-race, are key to the team’s continued success in this field.

“Having a core group of drivers like this is really important because none of us are here to try to outdo one another,” Ward summarizes.

“We're here to just come here and race as hard as we can and win… we've just hit it off from the beginning and seem to have a great group.”

Winward’s latest Daytona success comes with familiar implications. The last time the team won the Rolex 24, it followed up with three wins in the next four races. Already holding a 47-point lead over its nearest full-season rival — and with Sebring, a race the No. 57 has won the past two years, up next — stopping another championship charge may prove a tall order.