Ruhlman, who began his racing career while living in the Bay Area, has two wins to his credit so far this year, the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of Cleveland. He currently holds a fifteen-point lead over top Jaguar and former ALMS/Porsche Super Cup driver, Klaus Graf, who secured the second qualifying spot. Boris Said, the 2002 Trans-Am Driver's Champion and current NASCAR Nextel Cup driver, captured the pole and will be starting directly behind Ruhlman with the invert of the top five qualifiers.

"The Corvette is working well," says Ruhlman, "but we need to fix the gearing. The track drives a lot differently than it looked on paper, and with the compressed schedule today we didn't have enough time to change it before qualifying. I think we are going to have a fast car for tomorrow, but this race is going to come down to more than speed. You are going to have to be aware of everyone."

"This is a physically demanding track that is going to take its toll on drivers and equipment. There are going to be several battles going on at the same time with GTA cars, GT1 cars, and us in the faster Trans-Am cars. It's not going to be easy at all to pass anyone unless they want you too," continues Ruhlman.

"I am in a different position than Boris is; he's just coming in for a couple of races. As the points leader, I would like to maintain a top spot and keep in the big points. It is still anyone's Championship. I'll play it smart, but I am also out here to win races. But given what I've seen out there on track so far though, I think I should probably abide by my own words and 'Be Smart'," finishes Ruhlman.

Ruhlman, who graduated from nearby Stanford University with a degree in Industrial Engineering, has put in his time in professional racing and worked his way up the ladder. He started his racing doing local San Francisco Bay Area autocross. 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 move 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.

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. The race will be featured on live Internet timing on www.trans-amseries.com and will be broadcast on SPEED next Sunday, August 7 at 1PM EDT.