2019 Circuit Series

The 2019 Circuit Series is a sports car racing series organized by the North American Production Car Championship Association (NAPCCA), in conjunction with the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO), and Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It features grand tourer (GT) racing cars based upon production road cars that comply with the FIA's GT3 regulations.

This season marked the first season for tyre supplier Pirelli, who took over from Michelin following the numerous failures of the previous season. The incident in question was at the season finale at Spa-Francorchamps in 2018; Audi driver Markus Winkelhock was heading up Eau Rouge in the lead of the race going into the final couple hours of the race, when his front-left tyre exploded almost without question. He collided with the barrier at the top of the hill, suffering minor injuries, but with that, incited a flurry of controversy surrounding the French tyre supplier. No explanation could come up with a reason for the incident, until a December 2018 report by the SRO concluded that a rupture in the sidewall of the tyre caused the explosion.

Amidst the controversy and criticisms by racing journalists, drivers, and fellow tyre supplier and former Circuit Series tyre supplier Hankook, Michelin announced in a press conference that for the next season of the Circuit Series, they would pull out. They stated that "the safety of the drivers and/or team personnel should not be left up to chance or the faults of the tyres in which they drive on, and so we are deciding to pull out to promote a safer environment for the Circuit Series to operate in."

Teams and Drivers
Sixteen teams took part in the 2019 championship. Two teams were entered by each constructor, with three drivers taking part per team, for a total of ninety-six drivers.

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 * ✝ KTM disclosed on December 5, 2018 in the coming months before the beginning of the 2019 season that they would be entering with a special one-off GT3 version of their GT4 X-Bow car.
 * ‡ Along with KTM, on December 11, 2018, Volkswagen announced that they have developed a one-off GT3-class version of their TCR spec Golf GTI race car.

Schedule
Eighteen rounds were confirmed by the NAPCCA to be counted towards the 2019 Circuit Series.