World champion Pro Mod pilot Jay Payne will be taking his FireIce Camaro to Georgia this weekend with the simple goal of collecting his first victory of the season in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, which runs during the 31st annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.
"We're excited to head down to Atlanta," Payne said. "I've done really well there in the past and hope we can keep that up and get our first win of the season for FireIce and the 1.1 million firefighters in this country."
A five-time winner at Atlanta Dragway, Payne fully intends to continue his success in the deep south. He currently is working on gaining ground in the Pro Mod championship points in hopes of reaching contender status by the summer break.
"We're four races in now," Payne said. "It's time to start going rounds so we can get up towards the top and give the rest of the class a run for its money in the points chase."
"We know what we need to do. We just haven't done it yet. We haven't raced to our full potential, so that kind of gets under our skin a bit. But hey, we've been here before. We know what we're doing. We just need to put our heads down and get to work."
Including national and divisional races, Payne has won 109 times in NHRA competition. His stunning career total includes seven Pro Mod victories and the 2006 world championship, which occurred when Pro Mod was run as an exhibition class.
As always, Payne will be saluting local firefighters at this event through his association with FireIce and its parent company GelTech Solutions, a publicly traded corporation (OTCBB: GLTC) that produces an environmentally friendly fire suppression gel firefighters add to water to help extinguish fires much quicker than with water alone.
FireIce, which was recently added to the United States Forest Service's Qualified Products List, sponsors Payne's racecars to help raise funding and awareness for several charities, including the Leary Firefighters Foundation (www.learyfirefighters.org), Angel Faces (www.angelfacesretreat.org), and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (www.firehero.org).
"For us, Jay's a winner before that racecar ever hits the track," said GelTech CEO Michael Cordani. "The work he does with the charities we support and the time he spends with firefighters around the country on our behalf is unparalleled. We couldn't have a better spokesman for our company."
Qualifying begins at 3:15 and 5:30 p.m. Friday at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga.
