The 2013 podiums have been cleared. The banquets are over and the champagne glasses washed and put away. The race calendar has flipped and the clock, or more precisely the TUDOR watch, has started.

The countdown to the new era of endurance sportscar racing in North America is underway. From this moment on, GRAND-AM and the ALMS are officially over. The Future, or if you prefer, #thefuture, has arrived in the form of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

For the first time in well over a decade, the sport is unified. It is not perfect and remains a significant work in process, but it is one series, with one schedule, one set of officials and one plan.

Meanwhile, for teams, the clock is ticking at a furious pace. The first official test for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship will be held at Sebring next weekend. Forty-eight hours later, the testing scene will shift to Daytona International Speedway.

For some teams, the transition is fairly straightforward as current cars are already being prepped for the tests and the season beyond. For others, like Corvette Racing, new cars are being developed on an accelerated timeline to debut at Daytona in January rather than Sebring in March.

Many teams are making difficult decisions: Update equipment? New cars? Change classes? Manufacturers? Drivers? Invest in DP upgrades? Switch to P2 or PC?

Some longtime teams may even take a year off. Other newcomers or international teams may choose to enter. There are still many questions but the deadlines for entry for Daytona and the season leave little time to wait.

The road to the future will not be perfectly smooth, but the new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship holds great promise. Where before there were two divergent paths, there is now a superhighway.

The first on-ramps are about to open.