MacDaddy leads tight Australian Drone Nationals qualifying battle

MacDaddy is setting the tone on Panorama Drone Racing’s Australian Drone Nationals qualifier board, but the real story is how quickly the margins are disappearing. In Open Class, IQ0 sat first at 26.39 seconds, MacDaddy was 33rd on 40.20, Whitephos was 40th on 42.19, and PPrecious followed at 58.81, a spread that shows how one clean lap can still change the shape of the chase.

The pressure is coming from the structure as much as the speed. AUFPV’s 2026 qualifying series runs from 1 March to 30 June, with the national championship set for 30 September to 4 October at Western Districts Rugby Football Club, Memorial Park, 65 Sylvan Rd, Toowong, Queensland. The track is live on VelociDrone, was designed by reigning champion Wilf, and every entry has to be backed by DVR footage, then reviewed and verified before it counts. Open Class has a 96-pilot cap; Pro Spec has just 48 spots.

That is why the numbers on Panorama’s board matter so much. MacDaddy’s 40.20 in Open is not just a ranking line, it is a marker inside a field that still has room, but not much margin for error. Whitephos at 42.19 and PPrecious at 58.81 are close enough to feel the squeeze as more pilots upload verified runs, especially with the qualifying window still open into the end of June. In Pro Spec, MacDaddy led Panorama’s board at 53.80, with Whitephos next at 58.54, a gap of 4.74 seconds that shows how much ground is left to make up even before the championship field is finalized.

Bathurst gives the qualifier board extra meaning. Panorama Drone Racing is based in Bathurst, New South Wales, home of Australia’s most famous motorsport circuit, and the club’s live board turns qualifying into something closer to a race season than a static list. A Bathurst-area qualifier on 22 March produced a 60.33-second Pro Spec benchmark, which underlines how quickly the local pace has already been pushed down and how much sharper the next wave of laps will need to be.

The national picture is just as familiar as it is competitive. AUFPV’s 2025 Brisbane results had Wilf winning Open Class and Screecher taking Pro Spec, while the archive stretches back through Townsville, Canberra, Fremantle and Gold Coast, showing a championship system with real depth and continuity. This year’s board suggests the same core is back at it, but with far less room between contention and the cut.