David, Villwock and Myers Win Saturday Prelims

07:09 PM Sunday 04 Jul 2010 : North America

U-37 Miss Peters & May Photo-Chris Denslow

There were no surprises in the first day of heat racing at the Lucas Oil Indiana Governor's Cup on the Ohio River as all the top qualifiers in each race were able to take first place.

The best race of the day was heat 1A when Steve David (Lighthouse Pt, Fla.) in the Oh Boy! Oberto had early problems with J Michael Kelly (Puyallup, Wash.) in the Graham Trucking.

"J Michael pushed me to the limit," said David, who was the fastest qualifier for the race. "I had the inside lane and fortunately I was able to get by him."

Kelly took second place but put the rest of the fleet on notice that he is going to have to be reckoned with during the Sunday finals.

"When I saw Steve get inside me, I just pulled back and let him go," said Kelly. "He is going to be tough to beat when he's in lane one. If this was the final, I wouldn't have given him that much room but today I knew it was better to get 300 points than nothing."

Dave Villwock (Seattle, Wash.) in the Spirit of Qatar easily won heat 1B while JW Myers (Burien, Wash.) got a big break in heat 1C.

Myers, driver of the Miss Peters and May hydroplane, was in a great two boat battle with Kip Brown (Issaquah, Wash.) in the Cruisin' Auto boat. Myers dislodged a turn buoy, handing him a one lap penalty but moments later the gear box went out on the boat piloted by Brown, giving Myers the 400 points for first place.

Racing continues on the Ohio River on Sunday with opening ceremonies at 10 am and the first of six unlimited heats starts at 1 pm. The winner take all final will start at 4:20 pm EDT.

HEAT 1A

1- U1, Steve David, Oh Boy! Oberto—Fastest lap: 144.277 mph

2- U7, J Michael Kelly, Graham Trucking

3- U13, Cal Phipps, Spirit of Detroit

4- U5, Jeff Bernard, forumlaboats.com

HEAT 1B

1- U96, Dave Villwock, Spirit of Qatar—Fastest lap 143.175 mph

2- U21, Brian Perkins, Albert Lee Appliance

3- U25, Jon Zimmerman, Boyland Nissan.com,

4- U22, Mike Webster, Broadway Tavern

HEAT 1C

1—U37, JW Myers, Miss Peter and Mays---Fastest lap 148.079 mph