With 18 days until Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2014 GT/GT-A/GTS Pirelli World Challenge season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg, WC Vision announced that a full field of 50 cars is slated to take to the track for the series’ first weekend event of the year.

“It’s feels great to have such a large, competitive field entered for the start of our 25th anniversary season, as well as to sell out the opening races of 2014,” said Scott Bove, President and CEO, WC Vision.

St. Petersburg Pirelli World Challenge entry list

Among the 50-cars entered for St. Petersburg, Cadillac Racing CTS-V drivers Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim return to defend their GT manufacturers’ title and drivers title (O’Connell), while GMG Audi R8 Ultra pilot James Sofronas looks to knock the champions off of the podium. Also entered to race at St. Petersburg is one of the most successful drivers ever in international GT racing, Michael Bartels in a BMW Z4 GT3. Bartels won the GT1 class title of the FIA GT Championship in 2006, 2008 and 2009, as well as securing the Drivers’ and Team titles in the World Championship in 2010.

“Needless to say I’m excited about the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge season beginning at St. Pete,” said Johnny O’Connell. “As I look at all that is going on in sportscar racing, I realize that with each season our series is becoming more and more of a destination where world-class manufacturers and drivers wish to compete. That stated I think 2014 will be the strongest year in the series history. Personally, I know that again defending my championship will be difficult and I will have to be perfect in every event this season. The same I know can be said of Cadillac. This will be our 4th year campaigning the CTS-V, and with the addition of other manufacturers and teams, I expect us to once again have to dig deep to retain our titles, something I know that all of us at Cadillac Racing are capable of.”

“I feel honored to be able to race in such a professional championship amongst such established teams and drivers,” said EFFORT Racing No. 41 Porsche GT3 R driver Michael Mills. “As a team EFFORT Racing has already achieved fantastic results in our short existence. I’m looking forward to building on that success this year and fulfilling my role as their GT-A driver.”

In GTS, BlackDog Racing’s Lawson Aschenbach returns to defend his drivers’ championship and manufacturers’ championship for the Camaro against the likes of a number of serious contenders including Jack Baldwin, Mark Wilkins, and Andy Lee. A number of new teams also take to the Pirelli World Challenge grid in 2014 including Reiter Engineering with three Reiter Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3, DragonSpeed/ESM with two Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia and EFFORT Racing with two Porsche GT3 R.

GT/GT-A/GTS classes will compete across nine event weekends with a total of 16 races, while TC/TCA/TCB classes will compete across seven event weekends and a total of 14 races. Races will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network and live streamed via world-challengetv.com.