Holíč Castle to host Slovakia’s first 2026 drone race qualifier

Holíč Castle did more than host a race. It launched Slovakia’s 2026 drone calendar with a 5-inch qualifier built for immediate stakes, tight field size, and a setting that turns fast laps into a destination event.

Drone Racing Slovakia’s Central Europe Regional Qualifier landed at the castle on May 2 with a daytime main race from 09:00 to 19:00, then LED night exhibition flights from 20:15 to 21:00. The format gave the stop a split personality: serious championship racing by day, spectacle by night. With only 32 pilot slots and a €30 entry fee paid on site, this was never meant to be a casual club meet. It was structured like a pressure race from the first check-in.

The prize table underscored that point. First place paid €500, second €300 and third €200, with a raffle stacked with FPV hardware and accessories from iFlight, Foxeer, HGLRC, RadioMaster, BetaFPV, Gemfan and other names that matter to pilots who actually spend their weekends replacing props and tuning packs. Every registered racer also received a welcome pack, another sign that the event was built around the full pilot experience rather than a one-off exhibition.

The racing itself sat inside a formal schedule: registration, technical inspection, a track walk, practice heats, qualification heats using best-one-heat scoring for consecutive laps, then a double-elimination phase and awards before the night show. Drone Racing Slovakia allowed Analog, HDZero, DJI and Walksnail systems, and reminded pilots to bring insurance, an A1/A3 license, goggles, a radio transmitter and a charger. That mix of access and structure is what can widen the tent without watering down the competition.

What gave Holíč real weight, though, was the ladder underneath it. MultiGP’s 2026 Regional Series runs qualifiers from March 1 to July 15, with regional finals from August 1 to September 1. Each regional final winner is invited to the MultiGP Championship, and each qualifier winner can earn a wildcard if at least six pilots show up. That made Holíč more than a local opener. It was a points-bearing stop on the road to Germany’s regional final and, ultimately, the championship stage.

The venue amplified the message. Holíč Castle’s predecessor, Nový hrad, dates to the middle of the 13th century, and the first written mention of Holíč goes back to 1205. The site once guarded the Czech Road linking Hungary and Bohemia, and the city describes the castle complex as one of the most important Baroque ensembles in Central Europe. Folding a national-level qualifier into VIVAT Holíč 2026, the city’s summer tourist-season launch, gave the race something drone racing rarely gets: heritage, atmosphere and a built-in crowd.

Local listings placed the drone results presentation from 18:55 to 19:05, right before Emma Drobná’s concert at 19:05, with the broader festival also featuring an allegorical parade, an oldtimer rally, a dog show, boat models and castle tours. For Drone Racing Slovakia, that kind of public-facing programming matters. DRSK has already been expanding its 2026 footprint with new sponsors BetaFPV, Boslipo and Koptery.cz, while its core group of Tomáš Karvaš, Patrik Ivaška, Štefan Golian and Marek Piovarči has turned the operation into something more organized than a weekend meetup. Earlier TinyWhoop racing drew pilots from Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and Holíč pushed that regional footprint into full view.