Over four days in the Brisbane heat, 76 pilots flew in 345 races for the Australian Drone Nationals. For the first time in the history of Australian Drone Racing, no Australian pilot took home a 1st place prize: flowerpig of South Korea won Open Class, Screecher of the United States won Pro Spec, Foxur of Taiwan won Old Dogs and Sloogus of New Zealand won Young Guns.
They did it from a small corner of the grid. Ten international pilots entered this year, about one in eight of the field, and nine of them raced Open Class against 66 Australians. Between them they took six of the twelve podium places on offer across the four finals.
The Open Class result is the one that breaks new ground. An Australian had won it at all eight previous Nationals, back to 2016, and 5 of those went to BMSThomas. The warning came last year, when Screecher took the first Pro Spec title and finished second in Open Class. This year flowerpig finished the job, and did it from pole.
The home pilots were not far away, Australians filled second and third in Open Class and second, third and fourth in Pro Spec, and seven of the Open Class top ten were local. IQ0 was runner-up in both classes, and can come away proud knowing he was the best Australian pilot at the event. BMSThomas, ten years on from his first title, was on the Open Class podium again in third.
Here is how each title was won.
Open Class: flowerpig from pole
flowerpig arrived as the fastest pilot in the Qualifying Series and never gave the top spot away. He took pole with a best two consecutive laps of 40.172, 1.8 seconds clear of Sloogus, and on Friday afternoon set a 19.952, the only lap under 20 seconds all week.
Sunday's Top 48 final came down to a six-pilot Chase the Ace: flowerpig, IQ0, BMSThomas, Screecher, Sloogus and digsky. flowerpig took the first ace. Sloogus, the youngest pilot in the top six, won the second to keep it alive after flower pig collided with another pilot to crash out. In the third flowerpig took his second ace and the title, with IQ0 setting a 21.361 behind him, the third-fastest lap of the event.
Open Class podium: flowerpig, IQ0, BMSThomas. Screecher was fourth, Sloogus fifth and digsky sixth.
That is the same top three, in the same order, as the Qualifying Series back in July.
Pro Spec: Screecher gets it done in the knick of time
Pro Spec raced under lights, and the final on Saturday night was the closest racing of the week. Davey FPV took pole by 0.376 seconds from defending champion Screecher, and the two of them went into a four-pilot Chase the Ace with IQ0 and heepsy.
Screecher won the first ace from IQ0 by 0.077 seconds: 105.141 against 105.218. With the venue preparing to turn off the lights after racing had extended beyond the scheduled timing, Screecher crossed the line again, ahead of IQ0 moments before the venue lights were shut down.The win went to Screecher, and with it his second Pro Spec national title in a row, at 10:55 pm.
Pro Spec podium: Screecher, IQ0, Davey FPV. heepsy was fourth.
Old Dogs and Young Guns
The age-class finals were seeded from Open Class qualifying and run as their own brackets.
Old Dogs (40 and over, 20 pilots): Foxur won from top seed, ahead of bob9 and Voland. Foxur remains as the only Old Dogs champion, having now won the title as the best pilot over 40 years old at the past 3 Drone Nationals.
Young Guns (16 and under, 11 pilots): Sloogus won from top seed, ahead of Kiwi and Willman. Five of the eleven Young Guns also finished in the Open Class top 20, showcasing the emerging talent on offer between Australia and New Zealand.
Watch it back
Get every moment, every piece of data and analysis here on the AUFPV Platform - The event in numbers.
Congratulations to our four champions, and thank you to every pilot who made the trip to Brisbane. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be going through the numbers behind the event: the stats, the biggest movers, what the grid flew, and how well qualifying predicted it all.
Spread the word to your club.
