As a matter of fact, Ruhlman spent most of his life, and all the early part of his career in Santa Clara, the Peninsula and East Bay. It all started right there. And as a driver who spent so much of his life in the Bay Area, he can't wait to get out on the streets of San José and put down some of that Corvette horsepower.

What does he get out of driving those big V8 powered Trans-Am race cars? He gets a thrill of a lifetime every time he goes to work. As the current points leader for the 2005 Trans-Am Driver's Championship, this Trans-Am veteran has already had two wins this year in the Trans-Am series, the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Cleveland Grand Prix, and is looking to increase his lead in the points with a win at San Jose in front of old friends, family and sponsors.

Ruhlman has put in his time in professional racing and worked his way up the ladder, starting his career doing local area autocross races, like those at DeAnza College and the weekend race circuits around the Bay. After watching his first road race at the Sears Point Raceway (now Infineon), Ruhlman got hooked.

Ruhlman went on to SCCA Driver's school in Sonoma, and then on to winning in up and down the West Coast, before he made the moved up to Trans-Am in 1990. He has been racing as a professional road racer for 15 years, spending some of his time in the South doing NASCAR short track and ASA racing.

Ruhlman graduated from nearby Stanford University with a degree in Industrial Engineering. "The Bay Area is the place I love, and once I got here, I never wanted to leave. When I wasn't racing, I was mountain biking, or jet skiing. That is something you just can't get in very many places in the country. I can't wait to come out and race here."

"It is a great job. It is never the same and never boring. And truthfully, it is as fun as it looks to drive one of these cars. They have over 650 horsepower and we will see speeds over 140 mph on the streets in these big cars at San José. It is a rush. It takes a lot of work and time to learn to do it right and win races, but I love it," says Ruhlman.

"We travel all over the United States and even in Canada. To be coming back to San José, and be able to race down the streets that I drove down for years, is something I am really looking forward to. The city is doing such a great job getting ready and this is going to be one of the premier races on the Circuit for years to come," continues Ruhlman.

Randy Ruhlman drives the #49 Preformed Line Products Corvette in the Trans-Am Series. The Trans-Am race is one of the highlights of the weekend of racing at the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix of San José, beginning at 4 PM Saturday with the running of the Cytomax Sport Drink 100 race.