Ice Storm, one of the most important races of the season, with over $25,000 up for grabs, has just concluded. It was yet another Weekend of pure fun and a true celebration of the sport we all love, fpv drone racing. If you have been following the live coverage, you know what we are talking about. If you haven’t, watch it again as soon as you can.
First of all, a heartfelt thank you to Milwaukee Montessori School and Wisconsin Drone Racing for their partnership with MultiGP in producing this constantly growing, spectacular event.
The day of Saturday, April 29th, went smoothly with qualifying for the two race classes, Tiny Trainer and Open. The pilots wrapped warm in their Ice Storm Hoodies watched as Amari and MCKFPV excel as the top qualifiers, respectively. The South Korean reigning champion was called upon to redeem himself on the ice and he did not disappoint expectations on the first day of qualifying.
Saturday at noon the racers got a break as they cheered on the Team School race where young kids competed on an easier track. This was exciting for the kids, parents and the professional drone racers as they remembered the excitement from their early drone racing days! Many of the pro pilots stepped in to spot the up and coming racers and giving them tips!
And speaking of the track, a big thank you goes to Stefan Luteijn, aka BonerFPV. The process of designing 1 course for both 3″ and 5″ drones to fly is an unique challenge. This year’s track undoubtedly was one of the most beautiful and fun tracks we have seen!
You can find the track on our official simulator Velocidrone. Name of track: “Week 17 TT MGP Ice Storm 2023”
Let’s get to the race recap, on the tone…in less than 5!
TINY TRAINER CLASS
For the Tiny Trainer class, there was no shortage of twists and turns during the TOP 16 finals. Beginning with the preliminary races that saw two crashes by the number 1 and number 3 seeds, Amari and HajunFPV, both of whom finished in third place and were forced to the torturous path of the consolation bracket. Amari would leave the bracket for good only two races later, in Race 10, due to another crash on the second lap.
Linear and clean was the race instead for Enginair and The Milkman, who made it to the finals by going through the winner’s bracket and placing first and second respectively in Race 11, the winner’s bracket semifinal. Race 11 sent Fireserpent and Dreamz to the consolation bracket. Dreamz battled and made it to the final four, while Fireserpent lost to an irrepressible Ethan FPV, undoubtedly the pilot who achieved the best result with respect to his qualifying seed. Ethan finished third on the podium, a huge leap from the 14th position of the qualifying.  The final saw the absolute dominance of Enginair followed by The-Milkman, for both rounds of the chase the ace.
OPEN CLASS
The Open Class TOP 16 finals were just as hard fought although Michan Kim’s dominance was undisputed, from start to finish, securing him a spot in the final four.
A good performance by Propsicle landed him a seat at the finals by passing through the winner’s bracket, while Hyper and Noical both had to face the consolation bracket semifinals. Hyper suffered a defeat in the winner bracket semifinals, while Noical suffered a crash in the first lap of Race 3. Noical almost completed his masterpiece and historic comeback in Race 1 of the Final Four, taking advantage of a collision between MCK and a gate. In fact, Noical remained in the lead throughout the final race, but the South Korean champion managed an epic comeback to cross the finish line with a photo finish, with a gap of only 7 tenths of a second. Since MCK reached the final race as Top Qualifier, a 1st place finish in all his brackets, AND winning the first race of the Final Four, he was crowned champion due to the Iron Man clause!
“This year was like hardest race ever. I thought it was over, I saw Noical just passed me, Hajun told me that Hyper and Prospicle were down, so I thought I had at least second place, and I tried to push hardest as I can and I passed Noical at last gate and I can’t still believe it.” These words directly from the two time Ice Storm champion MCK FPV after the race, when interviewed by Joe Scully asking which victory was better, last year or this year.Â
So again, a special thank you to MMS (Milwaukee Montessori School) for believing in the sport of drone racing and bringing this event to the world stage. Congratulations to all pilot participants and thank you to all MultiGP volunteers and staff for making this great event possible. Thanks to Joe Scully for being an amazing commentator and race director at the same time, to Doug Kling for the great live stream coverage, and the whole executive team Chris Thomas, Roger Bess, Clare Cannizzario, Michelle Brooks, Mark Grohe, Henry Moizo, and Mark Huff and everyone who helped.
We’ll take a breathe after 1 month full of races and events, CDRC, Mayhem and Ice Storm. We now look forward to seeing all our racers at what some call the summer camp of drone racing, the International Open in June!
If you haven’t bought your tickets, just do it! :
RACE REPLAY
