After overshooting a corner and getting tangled up in the trees Russell handed over the lead on the second lap to Ashburn. His mishap also allowed Strang to take over the second place position.

However, it would not take long for the defending champion to recover and take back over the lead by the time the second lap concluded. Once Russell was back into the lead he slowly began to pull away, leaving a battle for second between Strang and Ashburn that would last through the second lap until Strang was able to clear the way and set his sights on Russell, who by that time had a fairly large gap on the rest of the field.