14 TCR cars in IMSA Pilot Challenge opener at Daytona

The 2019 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge kicks off Friday in style with a 4-hour race that is the prelude to the famous Rolex 24 Hours.
Two classes form the field: GS for GT cars and TCR. No fewer than 14 TCR cars have entered, which is a significant improvement compared to last year that marked the category’s debut in the series.
Three new brands: Alfa Romeo, Honda and Hyundai have joined Audi that dominated the past season with its Audi RS 3 LMS cars.
KMW Motorsports and TMR Engineering partner to run two Romeo Ferraris-built Alfa Romeo Giulietta cars that are driven by Alexandre Papadopoulos-Alex Popow and Roy Block-Tim Lewis.
After a successful 2018 season in the Pirelli World Challenge, Bryan Herta Autosport is the first team for race the brand new Hyundai Veloster N for the pairs of Mark Wilkins-Michael Lewis and Harry Gottsacker-Mason Filippi.
Five Honda Civic Type R FK7 cars will be on the grid. Three are run by LA Honda World Racing for Matt Pombo-Mike La Marra, Colin Mullan-Max Faulkner and Tom O’Gorman-Shelby Blackstock; one each by Atlanta Speedwerks for Brian Henderson-Todd Lamb and HART for Chad Gilsinger with the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge champion Ryan Eversley.
The Audi patrol is formed by five cars, two under the banner eEuroparts.com-ROWE Racing (Russell McDonough-Ryan Nash and Lee Carpentier-Kieron O’Rourke), one each for Fast MD Racing (Nick Galante-James Vance-Jared Salinsky), JDC Miller Motorsports (Michael Johnson-Stephen Simpson-Mickey Taylor) and Roadshagger Racing (Gavin Ernstone-Jon Morley) that was the fastest car in the pre-event test days.
Competitors will take part in a 15-minute Qualifying session today at 17:45 local time and the 4-hour race will start tomorrow at 12:15 local time (18:15 CET).