"The conditions were super bad," said Kleinubing. "My plan was to follow Matt [Plumb] at the start. I went to the outside and all the chaos happened on the inside, so by not doing anything and minding my own business, I found myself in second place by turn two.

"My car felt good, and once I got by Will [Turner] the car was really hooked up. I think if I really had to push the car, I could have gotten more out of it."

Starting from the outside of the front row, Plumb fell back at the start in the No. 50 duPont Motorsport/ERT/BMW 325i, running 11th by the end of lap one. Moving back into the top five by lap seven, Plumb battled with defending series Champion Peter Cunningham, of W. Bend, Wis., moving around the three-time Speed World Challenge Champion for second with eight laps remaining.

"The start was just out of control," said Plumb. "I got a pretty bad start at the standing start, having never done them before this season. I had absolutely no grip but it was probably a good thing as I was behind the spin on the first lap. I was practically parked in turn one with Bill's [Auberlen] car facing me. I'm not sure how far back I fell, but I was gradually able to work my way back to the front."

Starting from the seventh row, Prall was able to take advantage of the all-wheel drive quattro in his No. 78 STaSIS Engineering/Audi of Fairfield Audi A4 to jump up to sixth position. For the majority of the event, he battled with Plumb, Cunningham and Ken Dobson, of Carmel Valley, Calif., eventually claiming third place late in the race, his career best.