By alley - Feb 21, 2017, 5:54 PM ET

Davison rejoins TRG for PWC opener at St. Petersburg

The Racers Group is bringing back former TRG driver James Davison to pilot the 007 LaSalle Solutions Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 at the Pirelli World Challenge Series season opener at St. Petersburg.

"I am excited to be rejoining TRG and the Aston Martin brand after much success together the past three years," said Davison, whose career highlights include five straight poles in 2014-2015 in GT3. "The Vantage GT3 promises to be strong on the St. Petersburg streets and we look to go one spot better than my second place finish last year. It will be an exciting weekend for the team and all of its partners and sponsors."

Davison most recently drove for the Always Evolving team, which announced last week that it was paring down to one car in 2017. The Always Evolving team will also be responsible for funding the entry as it converts to a customer program after years of direct Nissan funding and involvement with the effort led by Aim Autosport.

Nissan recenly confirmed the changes

, meaning the 2017-spec GT-R GT3 is not expected to be ready for the season opener.

"This is going to be a really exciting weekend for the opening round here at the streets of St. Petersburg. We have put together a formidable team and we are coming here to run up front and put on a terrific show for our friends, partners, and fans at this wonderful venue," TRG team owner Kevin Buckler said. "We have brought out the big guns with both, the powerful Aston Martin Vantage 007 V-12 GT3 and of course our former team driver and Australian star.

"[PWC President and CEO] Greg Gill and the rest of the [PWC] team have assembled a first-class organization around world class events and we are proud to be involved. Also a big congratulations to Pirelli for providing a fantastic product and stable tire platform."

2017 is shaping up to be a big year for TRG. While TRG will continue to run Aston Martins in PWC and in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, it is switching to Porsche for its program in IMSA's GT Daytona division, with which it finished second in the class points in 2015. The deal means TRG will be mounting a first campaign in a major sportscar series with Porsche since an assault on the GT Cup category in the 2013 American Le Mans Series.