By: Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama
August 28 2016

Danville, Virginia – The Platinum Cup championship is coming into clearer focus for Jesse Lazare after a smooth, composed drive to victory amid many challenges Saturday in Round 11 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama at VIRginia International Raceway.

Lazare, from Montreal, earned his eighth victory of the season in the No. 21 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche, beating Andrew Longe to the finish by 1.296 seconds. Lazare also padded his Platinum Cup championship lead to 31 points over Longe, 193-162, with just five rounds remaining in the season.

"We just have to finish every race, and I think we have a good shot at it," Lazare said of his chances of winning his first title in his third season in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned Single-Make Series.

The race included a red flag period of 21 minutes due to a single-car accident involving Platinum Masters competitor Bill Peluchiwski in the No. 74 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche. Peluchiwski is awake and alert and has been admitted to an area hospital for evaluation. Additional updates will be provided as available.

Round 12, a 45-minute race, will start at 11:05 a.m. (ET) Sunday on the 17-turn, 3.27-mile circuit at VIR.

Jeff Mosing, from Austin, Texas, finished third overall Saturday and won the Platinum Masters class in the No. 01 TOPP Racing Porsche. Ricardo Perez, from Mexico City, placed fourth in the No. 02 JDX Racing Porsche.

Rookie Victor Gomez IV, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, earned a season-best finish of fifth in the No. 25 NGT Motorsport Porsche.

Sebastian Landy, from Great Falls, Virginia, took the Gold Cup championship lead with his class victory in the No. 49 TPC Racing Porsche.

The 45-minute race started on a damp but drying track after a heavy thunderstorm rolled through southern Virginia earlier in the afternoon.

Lazare took the green flag from the pole in hot, muggy conditions. But he lost the lead in Turn 1 when Will Hardeman and McKay Snow drove past him on the freshly repaved track, both eager to earn their first career victory in the series.

"It's always very difficult, especially on new pavement when you don't know how it's going to react," Lazare said. "If you're just a little bit off line, you're literally on a skating rink. That's why the first few laps I knew it wasn't worth pushing at my limit because I couldn't put it into the wall. Unfortunately, the guys who went for it didn't make it."

Hardeman led the first lap in the No. 19 Moorespeed Porsche but then slid into the wet grass in Turn 1 on the second lap, handing the lead to Snow in the No. 63 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Snow led Lazare by 1.362 seconds after the second lap. But he then spun off track, handing the lead back to Lazare, just before Peluchiwski veered off the front straightaway and made heavy contact with a tire wall, spinning across Turn 1.

The race was stopped for 21 minutes, with the field returning to the track under caution with 12 minutes remaining. Lazare brought the field to the green flag with six minutes, 20 seconds left in the race, setting up a four-lap dash to the finish under pursuit from Platinum Cup title contenders Lucas Catania and Longe.

Lazare led Catania by .533 of a second with one lap remaining. Catania, from Cazenovia, New York, tried to make an outside move around Lazare in Turn 14 on the final lap. But his car slid into the grass, letting Longe and Mosing past for the final two podium positions. Catania ended up eighth.

"He went for it, and I was surprised," Lazare said of Catania's move. "I chose the exact middle of the track to go in, and he tried to go out wide. Like I said, there's no grip anywhere besides one spot on this track. It was a really high-risk move. Unfortunately, it didn't work for him."

Lazare stayed composed to drive away to his third straight victory. Longe, from Naples, Florida, earned his fourth podium finish of the season in the No. 47 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Mosing drove to his first overall podium finish in Platinum Cup this season. He is the first Platinum Masters driver to stand on the overall podium in 2016.

Platinum Masters

2015 Gold Cup and Gold Masters champion Mosing earned his seventh Platinum Masters victory of the season to expand his championship lead to 195-186 over Fred Poordad.

Charlie Putman, from Casper, Wyoming, finished second in the No. 40 Atlanta Motorsports Group Porsche in just his second start this season. Putman also won the Yokohama Hard Charger Award for advancing the most positions during the race.

Poordad, from San Antonio, Texas, rounded out the podium finishers in the No. 20 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Mosing also competed in another race earlier in the day at VIR during the storms, and he said that gave him an advantage when trying to deduce the tricky grip levels during the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama race.

"Running that race before at least let me view what the track was in different conditions," Mosing said. "So going out there, I was just making sure to get the Yokohamas up to temperature for the conditions, just keeping my head out of trouble and head's up on other people that might be losing it."

Mosing started seventh but climbed to the podium as drivers ahead of him spun off track in the varying grip levels. He stayed within reach of Lazare, Catania and Longe in fourth at the restart after the red flag and was present to pounce when Catania spun off track on the final lap.

"Hat's off to Todd (Oppermann, TOPP Racing owner) and keeping their head in the game and getting the car set up for me where I could hang with those guys up front," Mosing said. "It was really a blast.

"I feel bad for (Lucas) Catania. He really tried to get it done in (Turn) 14 and just locked them up. I knew he was going over the hill; there was no coming back from that. So he blessed me with a podium. I feel bad for them but glad to be on the (overall) podium for the first time in Platinum."

Gold Cup

Landy earned his sixth class victory of the season with a stirring drive from the rear of the field. He took a 187-186 lead over Michael de Quesada in the championship standings with his fourth consecutive victory.

"It was just about keeping it clean and not making any mistakes because I knew the time that we had was pretty limited," Landy said. "But that was pretty huge to come from that far back to end up with the win."

Series rookie Phil Bloom, from New York, finished second in the No. 11 Wright Motorsports Porsche to equal his season-best result. De Quesada, from Tampa, Florida, rounded out the podium finishers in the No. 31 Alegra Motorsports Porsche.

Landy was forced to start second-to-last in class and in the overall field when his car and that of TPC Racing teammate Michael Levitas were moved to the back of the grid due to a pre-race technical infraction.

But Landy kept his cool while picking off cars on nearly every lap. He finally caught Gold Cup leader Bloom on the final lap, making the pass for the lead in Turn 4 and driving to victory by .910 of a second over Bloom.

"Philip raced me really hard," Landy said. "We gave it everything we had at the end, and I just managed to squeeze underneath him going into (Turn) 4. I'm really happy with that, happy with TPC Racing and Forto Strong Coffee to get the win."

Up Next

Round 12 will start at 11:05 a.m. (ET) Sunday. The race is 45 minutes.

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

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.

ROUND 11 POST-RACE QUOTES:

JESSE LAZARE (No. 21 Kelly-Moss Road and Race, winner): "It's always very difficult, especially on new pavement when you don't know how it's going to react. No one has experience. If you're just a little bit off line, you're literally on a skating rink. That's why the first few laps I knew it wasn't worth pushing at my limit because I couldn't put it into the wall. Unfortunately, the guys who went for it didn't make it. That's racing. I feel really bad for my teammate (Bill Peluchiwski)." (About pursuit by Lucas Catania on last lap): "He went for it, and I was surprised. I chose the exact middle of the track to go in, and he tried to go out wide. Like I said, there's no grip anywhere besides one spot on this track. It was a really high-risk move. Unfortunately, it didn't work for him." (Are you starting to think championship more after this win?): "Absolutely. We just have to finish every race, and I think we have a good shot at it."

ANDREW LONGE (No. 47 Wright Motorsports, second): "It's a classic motto: To finish first, you must first finish. So I just tried to keep it clean and keep it on track and work off my competitors' mistakes, and it ended up working out for us. I'm pretty happy with P2 but would have loved to be P1. I think we would have been there if it would have gone green the whole time. We had a great car in the beginning. But we're happy with P2."

JEFF MOSING (No. 01 TOPP Racing, third; winner, Platinum Masters): "Running the Conti race before at least let me view what the track was in different conditions. So going out there, I was just making sure to get the Yokohamas up to temperature for the conditions, just keeping my head out of trouble and head's up on other people that might be losing it. Hat's off to Todd (Oppermann, TOPP Racing owner) and keeping their head in the game and getting the car set up for me where I could hang with those guys up front. It was really a blast. I feel bad for (Lucas) Catania. He really tried to get it done in (Turn) 14 and just locked them up. I knew he was going over the hill; there was no coming back from that. So he blessed me with a podium. I feel bad for them but glad to be on the (overall) podium for the first time in Platinum."

SEBASTIAN LANDY (No. 49 TPC Racing, winner, Gold Cup): "It's all about being opportunistic when you have to be and keeping it safe and tidy when you don't have to, especially with the track as it was. Not too much grip out there. It was just about keeping it clean and not making any mistakes because I knew the time that we had was pretty limited. But that was pretty huge to come from that far back to end up with the win." (How did you pass Phil Bloom for first?): "Philip raced me really hard. We gave it everything we had at the end, and I just managed to squeeze underneath him going into (Turn) 4. I'm really happy with that, happy with TPC Racing and Forto Strong Coffee to get the win, especially with everything that has happened this weekend. It's been a bit of a roller coaster of a day. It's good to end on somewhat of a high note." (Did it help you to compete in another race earlier today, in heavy rain and then drying conditions?): "No, because it was completely different."

CHARLIE PUTMAN (No. 40 Atlanta Motorsports Group, Yokohama Hard Charger Award winner): (How do you adjust to a short sprint to the finish?): "I don't think you can change so much. You like to think you can give it that extra bit, but I think if you change up your game plan, you've got to run those last four laps just like the first four. If you try to get risky, you're just going to get over your head. It's not worth it. The conditions were pretty tough. The guys did a great job out there for the conditions." (How was the grip?): "It really wasn't too bad on line, but when you stepped off line to try to maneuver or made a slight error, it was pretty slick."

About Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama is in 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.

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