Mat Pombo, of Atlanta, earned a well-fought, first-career win in Sunday's SCCA Pro Racing Playboy MX-5 Cup Round Three race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, part of the American Le Mans Series Monterey Weekend.

Pombo started from the pole in the #01 MX-5. He led the first two laps of the 26-lap race before Brad Rampelberg, of San Jose, Calif., took the lead on lap three in the No. 4 MX-5.
From this point, it was a back-and-forth battle between Pombo and Rampelberg. They swapped the top spot six times throughout the race. In fact, on lap 22, Rampelberg had a narrow 0.001-second lead over Pombo - a virtual dead-even race at the start finish line.
Heading into the last lap, Rampelberg's lead was nearly half a second over Pombo. Rampelberg looked poised to capture his second win of the season or, at worst, record his third consecutive podium. However, coming out of Turn Nine into Turn 10, Rampelberg and Pombo came up on lapped traffic. Rampelberg was forced to check up and that's when Pombo got into the back of Rampelberg. The result sent Rampelberg into the Turn 10 gravel, while Pombo continued on to capture his first-career MX-5 Cup win.