Fizz Leads Australian FPV Open Class Qualifying With 27.47-Second Lap

Marcus Amery laid down the early benchmark for Australian open-class drone racing when he posted a 27.47-second lap under the handle Fizz, representing Outer Heaven Drone Racing, to head the Australian FPV Association's official 2026 Open Class qualifying leaderboard.

The margin over second place is narrow on paper but meaningful in practice. Gabriel Barrasso, racing as IQ0 for EastsideFPV, posted 27.78 seconds, just 0.31 back from Fizz. In sub-30-second circuit racing, a gap of that size reflects real differences in line discipline, throttle management through technical sections, and the ability to carry consistent exit speed across a full lap rather than recovering from isolated mistakes. Outer Heaven's Youhanna Wahba, known as Wubbz, then locked in 28.89 seconds to claim third, giving the club two pilots inside the top three and confirming its depth across the 5-inch open-class format. David Newman of the Canberra Multirotor Racing Club, racing as Davey FPV, posted 30.67 seconds, leaving him facing a 3.2-second deficit to the pace-setter as he looks toward the competitive season ahead.

The stakes attached to these numbers are concrete. Open Class qualifying times feed directly into A-Main and B-Main bracket seedings at national events and MultiGP-style regional competitions, meaning Amery's margin over the field translates into a structural race-day advantage: preferred heat draws, A-Main placement, and a buffer that lower-seeded pilots simply do not carry into race day. Where Fizz sits atop the leaderboard, rivals are chasing not just a faster lap but a better starting position in the bracket architecture that shapes the entire competitive season.

Outer Heaven's approach to verification adds another layer. Multiple Outer Heaven runs on the published leaderboard carry livestream or DVR tags, meaning those qualifying times come with captured footage available for third-party review. That matters for race directors building official seeding lists, for rival teams doing technical reconnaissance on setup and line choices, and for any sponsors evaluating pilot performance in a format where visual proof of a qualifying run is becoming standard practice.

The broader leaderboard covers the top 50 Open Class pilots across Australia's established clubs, including EastsideFPV, FPV Rebels, Panorama Drone Racing, and CMRC, with pilots consistently posting times across the sub-29 to mid-30-second range. That depth of competition across multiple clubs means the qualifying picture could tighten as the season progresses. For now, though, Outer Heaven holds the two most important positions on the sheet, and Fizz's 27.47 stands as the number every other pilot on the leaderboard is targeting.