Freedom Autosport’s Mat and Mark Pombo Third at Austin

Mat and Mark Pombo took their first podium finish of the season on Friday, driving the No. 25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 to third during the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Circuit of the Americas. The brothers had the highest-finishing Mazda in the ST class. 

The successful weekend at Austin brings Freedom Autosport’s tally to three wins, six podiums and eight top-five finishes this season. 

Mark Pombo started in the No. 25 Mazda after qualifying seventh. By the time he pitted to hand the car over to Mat, it was beginning to rain on some sections of the track. It posed a tough strategy call for tire selection, and Freedom Autosport chose to keep slicks on the No. 25 Mazda while Mat drove the second half of the race. 

“The crew did a great pit stop and we decided to stay on dry tires,” Mat said. “It was a good call by the crew and they really got us that finish. It was one of the wildest races I’ve been in because the track was changing every lap. It was one of my more fun races, too, because it was challenging and hard to get into a rhythm.” 

Staying out of trouble in the rain was not the only factor that made the Pombos’ podium especially memorable. Their father, Pepe Pombo, joined the team as their engineer for the weekend, and he will be with them again at their home track of Road Atlanta next week. 

“We were trying new shocks and it was dad’s first race as car chief, but we knew we had a good setup and we knew we could get a good finish,” says Mark, who was racing at Circuit of the Americas for the first time. “It was an uphill battle to learn the track, test the new shocks and get Dad up to speed, but we were optimistic about our chances going into the race.” 

Randy Pobst and Andrew Carbonell finished 10th in the No. 26 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5, battling a transmission issue to remain in the top ten. Matt Fassnacht and Britt Casey, Jr. were 21st in the No. 27 Mazda. 

Watch Mat and Mark Pombo earn their podium finish at Circuit of the Americas on September 28, during the Fox Sports 1 broadcast at noon ET.

Adam Sinclair