I'm guessing you've got a duff drive and you'd run into the same problem with later tracks on a music CD as well. (A music CD that's 66 minutes long at least.)

The thing about CD balance and tracking mechanisms is that they get increasingly unstable and unreliable the farther you get from the center of the disc. (CDs read from the center outward, the opposite of those ancient LP records I'm sure you're so familiar with.)

Another thing to consider is the ripping speed. The higher the ripping speed, the faster the disc turns and the more likely that an iffy tracking mechanism is not going to be able to keep up.

I say try ripping at a slower rip speed and see what's up.