It's been a long time – 17 years to be exact – since the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida have been together on the same schedule.

The two classics are kicking off the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Partnering with the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International (June 29), and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta (Oct. 4), America's premier endurance events form the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.

The Tequila Patrón Endurance Cup rewards the top-performing teams, manufacturers and drivers in the four longest races in the TUDOR Championship, battling for $300,000 in combined bonuses among the four classes.

Together, Daytona and Sebring represent 114 years of competition. The inaugural Twelve Hours was held in 1952 at the former WWII training base known as Hendricks Field.

The first Daytona Continental followed 10 years later, with the three-hour event held on the unique infield circuit nestled inside the mammoth high-banked superspeedway; the race expanded to 24 hours in 1966.

The two races ran approximately one month apart on the FIA World Manufacturers Championship through 1972, then switched to the fledgling IMSA GT Series for a quarter-century. It was this era that saw the rise of the exotic GTP Prototypes and World Sports Cars.

By the late 1990s, a split divided the two series. The 1997 Rolex 24 kicked off the IMSA World Sports Car season, with the name of the sanctioning body changed to Professional Sports Car Racing by the time the series came to Sebring.

For 1998, the Rolex 24 was sanctioned by the U.S. Road Racing Championship, and switched to GRAND-AM Road Racing in 2000. Sebring continued with Professional Sports Car Racing in 1998, and transitioned to the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón the following year.

Unification of the ALMS and GRAND-AM's Rolex Series was announced in September 2012. Now, sports car fans can watch "the best of the best" competing together at Daytona, Sebring and other legendary North American circuits.

TUDOR United SportsCar Championship
Next Race: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida
The Place: Sebring International Raceway
The Date: Saturday, March 15
The Time: 10:15 a.m. (ET)
TV: FOX Sports 1, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. (ET); 1 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.,
IMSA.com
Radio: MRN
Race Length: 12 Hours

Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge
Next Race: Sebring 200
The Place: Sebring International Raceway
The Date: Friday, March 14
The Time: 1 p.m. (ET)
TV: IMSA.com LIVE; FOX Sports 1, March 19, 1 p.m. (ET)
Race Length: 2 hours, 30 minutes