ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Tuesday, July 7, 2009 – U.I.M. F1 H2O World Champion Jay Price of the Qatar Team has a favorite slogan that he’s lived by for the past 25 years he’s been boat racing, it is “Taking it all the way to the top” and with barely a month to go to the next scheduled Grand Prix in St. Petersburg in Russia he’s doing just that, in a helicopter!
“I’m looking at taking more lessons since my neighbor got me interested in the sport since landing right in my yard in our neighborhood here in Slidell, Louisiana,” said Jay. “I’m getting to respect flying since it takes as much precision to fly it correctly as it does with my race boat, but thankfully there isn’t as much traffic in the air as there is on water in a Grand Prix.”
When Jay has a spare moment he entertains himself with a 30 foot (nine meter) Scarab offshore boat as well as his rare Prowler automobile that he purchased from a famous singer rapper. But now it seems this Hughes 300C helicopter has his latest attention as he was flying for nearly four hours recently all throughout the New Orleans region of the Gulf Coast in the United States.
As Jay gets ready for his second trip to the Neva River for back to back races on the eighth and ninth of August, for the seventh Grand Prix of Russia he needs to get back “in the zone” in order to move forward in the points championship if he has a real shot for back to back titles. He’s currently sitting second 18 points back of leader Thani Al Qamzi of Team Abu Dhabi with four of the 16 scheduled races run this far in the 2009 campaign.
“Last year in St. Petersburg we had a terrible weekend,” stated Price. “I was terribly sick with the flu and then I over revved the engine which didn’t help either, it was only one of two race meetings we failed to score points in during 2008. This time around we are going to be better prepared and with the combination of a new boat and learning a lot from last year we should do a lot better in these pair of races on this demanding race circuit. I’m excited for the whole Qatar Team.”
Since arriving in F1 full time just three season’s ago, the “Ragin Cagin” has scored wins in four of his 26 starts. A more impressive statistic shows him being on the podium with either a first or second place in eight of his last nine race finishes including his latest victory at the second race of the Grand Prix of Finland in Lahti three weeks ago.
Drivers from 14 different countries from around the world are expected to take part in the Seventh Grand Prix of Russia on the Neva River in the historic capital on the weekend of the eighth and ninth of August. Both races will be available to be aired live on www.f1h2o.com.
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