In his first season in IMSA's top class since 2019, Braun won three races in the GTP class with Meyer Shank Racing's Acura in 2023 alongside Tom Blomqvist, including the first race of the new hybrid era at Daytona and the Petit Le Mans season finale.
However, they lost the title to a 200-point deduction when the team was found to have manipulated tyre pressure data at Daytona, with Braun and Blomqvist ending up just 22 points down on Action Express Cadillac's champions Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.
With MSR announcing that it would be putting its GTP programme on hiatus in 2024, Braun has reunited with the Algarve Pro Racing-run CrowdStrike operation with which he won the LMP2 pro am class at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
He will once again pair up with bronze-graded George Kurtz, Braun's partner at Le Mans and for the full GT World Challenge America season which yielded the pro am title in their Riley-run GT3 Mercedes, to contest IMSA's P2 division in 2024.
“I can’t wait to get going with CrowdStrike Racing by APR in 2024 and make a run at the LMP2 championship alongside George,” said Braun, who won IMSA's LMP3 title in 2022 and back-to-back LMPC crowns in 2014-15.
“The dedication and professionalism of CrowdStrike Racing is unmatched and I’m honoured to share a seat with George, who did such a fantastic job in 2023.
“It sure looks like LMP2 is going to be stacked with tough competitors, but we are ready for the challenge. IMSA racing is really special, and I look forward to another season!”
Braun has a strong track record in the ORECA-Gibson 07, having won twice outright in 2018 when LMP2 cars were grouped together in the top Prototype class with DPi machinery at Mosport and Road America in a Core Autosport entry he shared with team owner Jon Bennett.
In his and the CrowdStrike by APR team's first season in IMSA, Kurtz narrowly missed out on the title with Ben Hanley as the pair finished runner up to PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports pair Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin.
Kurtz and Hanley, who will race for United Autosports in IMSA next year alongside Keating, won at Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans to secure the Michelin Endurance Cup.
Together with Matt McMurry and Esteban Gutierrez they also came up just 0.016s short of victory at Daytona, which didn't count for points towards the P2 title.
Team boss Stewart Cox said: “As a team, we’re pleased with how CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s 2023 campaign went, but we’re already pushing on with the intention for next season being to win the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 titles.
“We missed out on this year’s by only a few points and we know exactly why, so we will come back with a slightly amended approach that all the math and data says will put us in the best possible position to win the overall championship, and also defend the Michelin Endurance Cup.”
