The California 8 Hours at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will now take place on Saturday March 30, one day earlier than previously announced.

The three-day event, which serves as the second round of 2019’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli, has been moved 24 hours earlier in order to better accommodate live TV.

The event’s final timetable and broadcast schedule will be announced at a later date. Testing is expected to take place on Wednesday, March 27 before the weekend’s official track action begins on Thursday. Friday brings with it qualifying and Pole Shootout ahead of Saturday’s race.

Teams and manufacturers can now also submit and nominate their California 8 Hours entries after the process officially opened this week. Reigning Manufacturers’ champions Audi will seek a third outright victory after also triumphing there in 2017 and ’18. They will be joined on the grid by current full-season entrants Bentley, BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-AMG, which confirmed its participation earlier today, as well as additional marques entered by international and US teams. Another full-season entry will be announced before the championship’s opening round at Bathurst on February 1-3.

Just 5.3s separated the top two finishers last season after eight hours of racing, with the No. 29 Audi Sport Team Land taking the win.