Crowdstrike, Kessel teams earn Le Mans invites with Asian Le Mans titles

The CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Kessel Racing teams earned coveted invitations to enter the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours in the Asian Le Mans Series season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

The two teams endured tough outings in the red flag-extended title showdown, but captured the LMP2 and GT championships, respectively, with eighth and ninth-place finishes in class. It was a chaotic final chapter of the season, which finished later than expected under the floodlights after a stoppage of over 70 minutes for barrier repairs following a violent incident involving Michael Jensen and Memo Gidley.

The two drivers came together at speed, veering off track into a strip of guardrail, which dealt severe damage to the barriers and both Jensen’s APR ORECA and Gidley’s Ferrari 296. Thankfully, both drivers walked away from the crash site before cleanup began.

• RACE REPORT: DKR wins Abu Dhabi finale as Crowdstrike by APR claims Asian Le Mans Series title

For CrowdStrike Racing by APR, the triumph adds to an astonishing start to the 2026 season for George Kurtz and the family-run Algarve Pro Racing team. Over the past month, they have won the LMP2 class at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and three consecutive Asian Le Mans Series races – two at the Dubai Autodrome and Saturday’s race in Abu Dhabi – en route to a class title.

American businessman/racer Kurtz, driving with Cadillac factory driver Louis Deletraz and Peugeot talent Malthe Jakobsen, was strong throughout the winter campaign, rarely putting a foot wrong while competing in the high-quality 16-car top class.

The statistics associated with the title deserve repeating. It is Algarve Pro Racing’s sixth Asian Le Mans Series title, Kurtz’s second drivers’ crown, and Jakobsen has become the first driver to win three consecutive titles in the same category. Meanwhile, a maiden Asian Le Mans Series crown also means Deletraz has now won a LMP2 title in every ACO series, including both ELMS classes.

In the GT ranks, Swiss Ferrari customer team Kessel Racing came out on top in the 19-car GT3-based category, with American Dustin Scott Blattner, Chris Lulham and Dennis Marschall behind the wheel of its 296 GT3. The high points of the trio’s run came at Sepang and Dubai, where they won Race 2 in Malaysia back in December, and the first race at Dubai to kick off the Middle-Eastern stretch of the six-round championship.

In addition to the title, the team now has two automatic invitations for Le Mans (its first came via success in GT World Challenge Europe), and can look to build on its eighth-place finish in the 2025 running of the endurance classic with a two-car effort should it choose to do so.

Swiss-flagged team CLX Motorsport won the LMP3 title off the back of a clean sweep of pole positions and two wins with Alex Jacoby, Paul Lanchere and Kevin Rabin. The LMP3 title-winning team in the Asian series does not earn an invitation to enter the Le Mans 24 Hours, however.

The two automatic invitations to enter the Le Mans 24 Hours handed out tonight were likely the final pair dealt out for the 2026 edition of the race. In theory, IMSA may still offer a Hypercar invitation to a GTP team, but RACER understands that it is unlikely to happen this year. This is because the previous year’s GTP champion would ordinarily be granted the invite, but Porsche Penske Motorsport is unable to compete at Le Mans with the 963 due to Porsche’s withdrawal from Hypercar.

This year's 24 Hours of Le Mans runs June 13-14.

2026 24 Hours of Le Mans automatic invitations:

HYPERCAR

• TBD (IMSA invite, unlikely to be handed out)

LMP2

• AO by TF (1st in ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am)
• CLX Motorsport (1st in ELMS LMP3)
• CrowdStrike Racing by APR (1st in ALMS LMP2)
• Inter Europol Competition (2nd in ELMS LMP2)
• P.J. Hyett (1st in IMSA Jim Trueman Award)
• VDS Panis Racing (1st in ELMS LMP2)

LMGT3

• 2x Kessel Racing (1st in ALMS GT; GT World Challenge Europe Bronze Cup)
• Orey Fidani (1st in IMSA Bob Akin Award)
• TF Sport (1st in ELMS LMGT3)