Pirelli World Challenge launches its 25th season this weekend at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The first race of the year will be for the GT, GT-A and GTS classes and as of today there are a total of forty-eight entries (12 x GT; 12 x GT-A; 24 GTS) making for a very strong field. There is also an interesting mix of cars including the return of Aston Martin with two cars from TGR-AMR in GTS and three Lamborghini Gallardos from Reiter Engineering – two in GT-A and one in GT . The big news for 2014 is the move by K-Pax to the McLaren 12C GT3 after so many years successfully fielding Volvo S60s.

Canadian fans can continue to cheer on Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON) as he returns to the series behind the wheel of the KIA Racing/Kinetic Motorsports #38 KIA Optima. Wilkins had a fantastic 2013 season with six podiums including two victories (Detroit, Mid-Ohio) on his way to third overall in the GTS championship. Never finishing outside the top six, Wilkins (along with team mate Nic Jonsson #36) also helped KIA secure second place in the manufacturer's championship. Mark and KIA are looking for even great success and a run at the championship in 2014.

A new entry for Pirelli World Challenge this year – and another Canadian for us to cheer on, is R.Ferri Motorsport. The Vaughn, Ontario-based race team has made the move over to the series after running in the GRAND-AM series last year. Running the #61 Ferrari 458, the team recorded two podiums including taking the victory on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. They finished third at Detroit's Belle Isle and just missed the podium twice finishing fourth at Barber Motorsport Park and Road America. R. Ferri Motorsport will field two Ferrari 458 Italia GT3s in World Challenge – one in GT for Anthony Lazarro (#61) and one in GT-A for Nick Mancuso (#16)

Pirelli World Challenge action at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg gets underway on Friday (28th) with two practice sessions at 9:20 am and 4:20 pm (ET). Qualifying takes place at 8:00 am Saturday (29th) with race one set to go that afternoon at 3:25 (ET). Race two goes on Sunday (30th) at 11:25 am. (ET) Both races are scheduled to run for sixty minutes.

You can catch all the action via live streaming at www.world-challengetv.com

photo: KIA Racing #38 Kia Optima/Mark Wilkins