Monterey, California - Jesse Lazare led Round 3 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama from flag to flag to capture his second win of the season Friday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Lazare, from Montreal, led the field from pole position and took a 2.432-second victory in the No. 21 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche over series points leader Lucas Catania in the No. 26 NGT Motorsport entry. The race was shortened due to a prolonged caution and red flag period due to an accident.

"The car was great right from the green to the accident and from the restart to the end," Lazare said. "The team did a wonderful job, and I'm going to keep pushing and try to catch up in the championship. Now with another win here, we saw we still have the speed, and I'm very confident we're going to give Lucas a run for his money in the championship."

Ricardo Perez, from Mexico City, earned his second straight podium finish with a hard-fought third place in the No. 02 JDX Racing Porsche.

Will Hardeman, from Austin, Texas, tied a career best by finishing fourth in the No. 19 Moorespeed Porsche after starting a career-best second. Rounding out the top five was Andrew Longe, from Naples, Florida, in the No. 47 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

At the drop of the green flag, Lazare led the field through Turns 1 and 2 while Catania got a jump to take second position from Hardeman. Over the next few laps, Hardeman followed closely behind Catania, looking for an opening. But side-by-side contact between Joe Catania and Oscar Arroyo in Turn 1 halted those efforts as Arroyo hit the inside retaining wall, bringing out a full-course yellow to pack up the field. Arroyo was unhurt.

After a red flag for debris cleanup from the incident, the field took the green again for the remaining 25 minutes of the 45-minute race. Lazare extended his lead after the restart, but the fight for the remaining podium positions raged on behind him.

Jeff Mosing made a move shortly after the restart to take third position from Hardeman, with Perez right behind him. Hardeman fell to sixth position, but his day wasn't done.

Hardeman slowly reeled in Mosing and Perez as they dueled for third place. With 13 minutes to go, Mosing slid wide through Turn 2 to open the door for Perez and Hardeman.

"This is a new car for me, so I am constantly trying to learn how to get quicker in it," Mosing said. "I thought I had a grasp on it, but I ended up using my rears (tires) up a little bit. I didn't recognize it and didn't move the bias toward the front soon enough, so I spun it in Turn 2. I just wanted to hang with those guys."

Hardeman pressured Perez at every corner over the last 12 minutes, getting as close as .251 of a second of the final podium position. But Perez hung on for third.

Platinum Masters

Mosing, the 2015 Gold Cup and Gold Masters champion, made the move to Platinum Cup this season in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. He earned his first Masters win of the season today in the No. 01 TOPP Racing Porsche after finishing second in Round 2 in March at Sebring International Raceway.

"This series is awesome, and it never disappoints me," Mosing said. "Moving up to Platinum has been a real challenge. I think over the course of the year I am going to get up there and give those guys a run. But for now I am just trying to learn the car. Hats off to (Todd) Oppermann and TOPP for giving me a great car, and we are going to go back at it tomorrow and see if we have something for the front runners."

Fred Poordad, from San Antonio, finished second in class in the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche for his second podium finish of the season.

Fred Kaimer, Austin, Texas, rounded out the Platinum Masters' podium with a third-place finish in the No. 23 NGT Motorsport Porsche. He also earned his second Yokohama Hard Charger Award of the season, presented to the driver who advances the most positions throughout the race.

Gold Cup

Sebastian Landy, from Great Falls, Virginia, broke through in Gold Cup competition with a convincing win in the No. 49 TPC Racing Porsche.

Landy started from the pole with a qualifying time that gave him a significant gap over the next-closest Gold Cup car, providing some breathing room throughout the race - especially on the restart after the long red flag and caution period.

"I was pretty lucky after the restart to find a little bit of space," Landy said. "Then it was a matter of keeping my head down and staying clean. I guess I had a gap on both sides of me. The car ran good. It was consistent the whole race."

Series rookie Philip Bloom, from New York, finished second for his second consecutive podium finish in the No. 11 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Michael Levitas, from Baltimore, rounded out the Gold Cup podium in the No. 36 TPC Racing Porsche.

Up Next

Round 4 will start at 8 a.m. (PT) Saturday. The race is 45 minutes.

For live timing, visit scoring.imsa.com or the IMSA mobile app for iOS, Android or Windows. For live updates on all the action, follow @IMSALive on Twitter.

The race will also be streamed live at imsa.tv, with a delayed television broadcast on Sinclair Broadcast Group affiliates in major United States markets.

ROUND 3 POST-RACE QUOTES:

JESSE LAZARE (No. 21 Kelly-Moss Road and Race, winner): "The car was great right from the green to the accident and from the restart to the end. The only thing that concerned me was after that huge crash on the front straight, I was very concerned the tires, of all the parts I picked up, I had no choice to run over it. But the series did a good job of red-flagging it and cleaning the track. If the series wouldn't have done that, there would have been problems. So good job by the series. The team did a wonderful job, and I'm going to keep pushing and try to catch up in the championship." (A nice redemption after the disappointment of the second Sebring race?): "Absolutely. At Sebring, it was no one's fault. It was just racing. Now with another win here, we saw we still have the speed, and I'm very confident we're going to give Lucas a run for his money in the championship."

LUCAS CATANIA (No. 26 NGT Motorsport, second): "Of course I would love to win, but Jesse (Lazare) drove an awesome race. He didn't drop a wheel wrong. So hat's off to him for being really quick. I was definitely pushing hard to catch him, but it was just a crazy race from the beginning. We had the long red flag, and the track was dirty everywhere. The Laguna sand makes things interesting because you don't know where or when you'll have grip and when you don't. I just tried to put my head down and push forward. I'm happy with second. Thanks to NGT Motorsport; the car was awesome. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

RICARDO PEREZ (No. 02 JDX Racing, third): "It's a hard race because we started in sixth position, and we worked a lot to take third place. I was very aggressive in the first part, and in the last part of the race, the car was not so well. I needed to be very careful with the tires and the brakes, and the other guy is hitting me every lap about in the middle of the race. Then I was able to make a gap. I'm very happy. The team works very hard. We need to work more in qualifying because if we start at the back, we have a lot of degree of difficulty. But tomorrow is another race. We start P5, and we want to win tomorrow."

JEFF MOSING (No. 01 TOPP Racing, winner, Platinum Masters): "This is a new car for me, so I am constantly trying to learn how to get quicker in it. I thought I had a grasp on it, but I ended up using my rears (tires) up a little bit. I didn't recognize it and didn't move the bias toward the front soon enough, so I spun it in Turn 2. I just wanted to hang with those guys. It's a lot of fun. This series is awesome, and it never disappoints me. Moving up to Platinum has been a real challenge. I think over the course of the year I am going to get up there and give those guys a run. But for now I am just trying to learn the car. Hats off to (Todd) Oppermann and TOPP for giving me a great car, and we are going to go back at it tomorrow and see if we have something for the front runners."

FRED POORDAD (No. 20 Wright Motorsports, second, Platinum Masters): "We had pretty good, clean racing. I was pretty happy with the performance of the car. Wright Motorsports does such a great job every time. They give me the right equipment to win. Bad on me because I spun with two laps to go battling Jeff Mosing. Got a little bit too eager too soon, but hopefully it's a sign of things to come for a top podium spot in the future."

FRED KAIMER (No. 23 NGT Motorsport, third, Platinum Masters; Yokohama Hard Charger Award winner): "It was a lot of fun. It got a little hairy toward the end. Bill (Peluchiwski) didn't want to give up his spot, and I don't blame him. But I might have pushed it a little bit. But it went pretty well. The car was working great. These NGT guys set up a great car, so all you have to do is get in and drive." (Was your car any different after the red flag?): "No, not really. It stayed the same. My tires started to go off at the end, so I was kind of glad it was a shortened deal. I was probably overdriving them, trying to catch the guy in front of me. But I'm pretty excited about the Hard Charger Award because a free set of tires can't hurt. It can replace the ones we just burned off the car, so there we go!"

SEBASTIAN LANDY (No. 49 TPC Racing, winner, Gold Cup): "I was pretty lucky after the restart to find a little bit of space. Then it was a matter of keeping my head down and staying clean. I guess I had a gap on both sides of me. The car ran good. It was consistent the whole race. TPC Racing gave me a great car. I think the only thing that was slowing me down at the end was the tires that got knocked on the apex of the Corkscrew. I was a little upset to see the crash at the beginning, but Porsche builds safe cars. I'm thankful for the guys at IMSA that we could get back out there and racing because I know that was a pretty big crash. I'm really happy to get the win in my first race with my new sponsor, Forto Strong Coffee. I'm really excited about this partnership. I'm really happy we could kick things off the right way with a pole and a win."

PHILIP BLOOM (No. 11 Wright Motorsports, second, Gold Cup): "Shocking finish. I think (Michael) de Quesada and (Michael) Levitas made contact in Turn 2, and I end up on the podium. P2. Pretty crazy." (Was your car any different after the red flag?): "Somebody went in Turn 5 and laid down a lot dirt, so Turn 5 and Turn 6 were like ice. Really sketchy. But those Yokohama tires held in to the end." (Impressions of racing at this track for first time): "It's a lot harder than it looks."

MICHAEL LEVITAS (No. 36 TPC Racing, third, Gold Cup): "What an exciting race. It was really fantastic. Great competitors. I've got to congratulate my teammate, Sebastian (Landy). I'll tell you what: He's TPC's new secret weapon. This boy is on fire. We're going to keep giving him a great car. Thanks for Forto Strong Coffee for getting the boy all energized up. If it wasn't for the Yokohama tires taking him to the end, (Philip) Bloom would have had him. So great job. Great job to everybody."

About Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama enters its 12th season in 2016 as one of Porsche's 20 single-make Cup Challenge series in the world. The series produces intense, exciting competition for semi-professional and aspiring professional drivers in the world's most produced and iconic race car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Racing is divided into two classes - Platinum Cup, featuring the 2014-2016 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, which is based on the current seventh, and current, generation of the street car, and Gold Cup, which is comprised of the previous iteration (model years 2010-2013) of the race car. A Masters Championship also is conducted in the Platinum class. Each class is awarded with its own podium at the end of every race and individual champion at the end of every season. Points are awarded by finish in class.

For more information about Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, visit www.gt3cupchallengeusa.com, follow hashtag #GT3USA @IMSA on Twitter or IMSA on Facebook.

About IMSA

The International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 and owns a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and the Mazda Prototype Lites Presented by Cooper Tires, as well as four single-make series: Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama; Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama; Ferrari Challenge North America; and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. IMSA - a company within the NASCAR family - is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The partnership enables selected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. For more information, visit www.IMSA.com, www.twitter.com/IMSA or www.facebook.com/IMSA.

Canadians In BOLD