Elizabeth and John Mark Branch of Chesterfield, Mich. stand atop the U-22 on Saturday. The couple married at the Roostertail Restaurant, which is a presenting sponsor for the Mike Webster's U-22 PVS Chemical. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Elizabeth and John Mark Branch of Chesterfield, Mich. stand atop the U-22 on Saturday. The couple married at the Roostertail Restaurant, which is a presenting sponsor for the Mike Webster's U-22 PVS Chemical. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Jean Theoret, Cal Phipps and Scott Liddycoat each jumped the start in the heat, leaving the race wide open for Jimmy King to cruise to the win in the U-3 Miss HomeStreet Bank. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Jean Theoret, Cal Phipps and Scott Liddycoat each jumped the start in the heat, leaving the race wide open for Jimmy King to cruise to the win in the U-3 Miss HomeStreet Bank. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Brian Perkins picks up a win in Heat 1B aboard the U-21 Miss Al Deeby Dodge. Tom Thompson was second in the U-11 Peters & May, Jesse Robertson was third in the U-7 Graham Trucking II and Mike Webster placed fourth in the U-22 PVS Chemical. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Brian Perkins picks up a win in Heat 1B aboard the U-21 Miss Al Deeby Dodge. Tom Thompson was second in the U-11 Peters & May, Jesse Robertson was third in the U-7 Graham Trucking II and Mike Webster placed fourth in the U-22 PVS Chemical. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Miss Madison/Oberto driver Jimmy Shane grabs the inside lane and holds off J. Michael Kelly and the U5 Graham Trucking in a deck-to-deck battle in Heat 1A. The win allows Shane to increase his season points lead to 426 over Kelly. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

Miss Madison/Oberto driver Jimmy Shane grabs the inside lane and holds off J. Michael Kelly and the U5 Graham Trucking in a deck-to-deck battle in Heat 1A. The win allows Shane to increase his season points lead to 426 over Kelly. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

DETROIT - Jimmy Shane steered the U-1 Oberto/Miss Madison to a close win in Heat 1A and then watched as several of his closest competitors shot themselves in the foot on the first day of the UAW/GM Spirit of Detroit Hydrofest on Saturday.

Shane was matched up with archrival J. Michael Kelly in the opening heat, but thanks to a good game plan between Shane and his spotter, Jeff Bernard, he grabbed lane one before the start, took the lead midway through lap one and held on for the close win.

“We knew how fast each other’s equipment was so I knew we would be in a much better position if I got lane one,” Shane said. “We had a great timing mark and me and (Bernard) went over it and over it. We stuck to our plan, we knew right where we wanted to be and it worked out great.”

Kelly, driving the U-5 Graham Trucking, finished second in the heat, less than three boat-lengths back. Kevin Eacret took third in the U-100 Miss CARSTAR and David Warren was fourth in the U-12 Miss DiJulio.

The heat win came less than eight hours after Shane and the Oberto narrowly avoided disaster. One of the struts that holds the boat’s skid fin onto the left side of the hull snapped during the morning test session and the fin itself began to tear away from the hull. A vital part of the boat, the skid fin is even more important on Detroit’s tight second turn.

“It was one of the main rods that holds the skid fin tight and what happens is that you lose the angle of the fin, it starts flexing and it starts hooking really bad,” Shane said. “It actually pulled two of the plates from the side of the boat and sheared two bolts from the inside. We had to hurry up and fix that before the qualifying session, got the glue to dry in time — we think — and everything held together. It was a great rest of the day.”

The victory pushed Shane’s lead over Kelly in the H1 Unlimited season points standings to 426, and he then gained even more points on the field after a wild Heat 1C that saw his three next closest competitors penalized.

Jean Theoret, Cal Phipps and Scott Liddycoat each jumped the start in the heat, leaving the race wide open for Jimmy King to cruise to the win in the U-3 Miss HomeStreet Bank. Theoret, driving the U-96 Ellstrom Elam Plus, was then assessed a second penalty for encroaching on Liddycoat’s U-9 Team RedDot, pushing him back to fourth. Phipps, in the U-27 Dalton Industries, finished second with Liddycoat third.

“You take them any way you can get them,” King laughed after the win. “When I heard over the radio all the boats jumped I just wanted to make sure I did what we needed to make it through the heat without an issue.

“The course is one of the toughest on the circuit, and it can be a battle of attrition,” King added. “We needed to make sure this boat came away unscathed.”

Brian Perkins picked up an easy win in Heat 1B aboard the U-21 Miss Al Deeby Dodge. Tom Thompson was second in the U-11 Peters & May, Jesse Robertson was third in the U-7 Graham Trucking II and Mike Webster placed fourth in the U-22 PVS Chemical.

Heat action continues on Sunday with the second set of heats at 11:30 a.m. The winner-take-all final heat will be run at 4:10 p.m. and Sunday’s racing will be streamed live on ESPN3.