Tandemonium RC Drift Track hosts welcoming tinywhoop race night in Danvers

The easiest way into drone racing in Danvers came with no admission fee and no barrier at the door. RC ACES Model Club brought a tinywhoop meetup to Tandemonium RC Drift Track on Saturday, April 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at New England Premier Sportsplex, 199 Newbury St., and spectators were welcome for free. Pilots could also stay after the race to fly while RC drift cars ran on the same course, giving the day the feel of a shared RC hangout instead of a sealed-off competition.

That crossover was the point. Tandemonium bills itself as New England’s Premier RC Drift Arena in Danvers, Massachusetts, and its flagship surface covers about 900 square feet of P-Tile. With public hours and a stated welcome for both experienced RC drifters and newcomers, the venue was built for exactly the kind of mixed-use event that tinywhoop racing thrives on. The format rewards a place where first-time pilots can watch a heat, ask questions, and then get into the air without having to commit to a formal club night first.

The larger drone racing world gives that local scene real weight. MultiGP says it is the largest drone racing league in the world, with hundreds of chapters worldwide and more than 30,000 registered pilots. Its Tiny Whoop class guidance describes the category as micro 1S quads usually flown indoors, often on LED tracks, and its class specs note that many ready-to-fly, bind-and-fly, and custom builds fit the format. In other words, the barrier to entry is lower than in many racing classes, which helps explain why a free meetup in Danvers can matter so much for growth.

TinyWhoop.com adds another layer of context, saying it has supported the community since 2016 and crowns an official champion each April at the Tiny Whoop Open in Denver, Colorado. Against that national backdrop, the RC ACES date landed in the same month as the sport’s best-known championship, while still serving a local audience looking for a first pack, a first lap, or a first connection to the FPV scene.

RC ACES’ broader home base in North Hampton, New Hampshire, also shows how the club works as a gateway. The organization says its 227 Atlantic Ave. field is an FAA-recognized FRIA site where Remote ID is not required for line-of-sight flying below 400 feet. In Danvers, that same access-first mindset turned Tandemonium’s drift arena into a recruitment lane for drone racing, where the path into the sport began with a free seat and ended with flight time.