Congratulations Vincent Delcommene (also known as VINCBEE): the first FPV Racing World Cup champion.

Delcommene, from Belgium, beat off fierce competition to claim the top spot, and his place in the history books, as the first ever winner of this new, high-energy event. He triumphed after outpacing more than 200 other participants to finish with a total score of 114. Delcommene was joined on the podium by France’s Benoit Couturier, in second place with 110 points, and fellow Belgian Maxime Bastin, who secured the 82 points needed to take third place.

Of the 18 junior pilots in the competition, victory went to Je-Hak Lee of Korea, who came 11th overall with a score of 48.

Delcommene, who has only been piloting remote control aircraft for about a year, believes his motorbike and go carting experience was the key to his success. “I can’t believe I have become the first ever winner of the Drone Racing World Cup,” he said. “I think my years of experience on motorbikes and go carts have really helped my piloting technique. "But you must remember that to succeed in this sport takes hours of training and working on our drones, as well as huge concentration on the day. "I would like to thank my main sponsor CRT Informatique and Christophe Voisin for all their support!”  

The FPV Racing World Cup

More than 200 drone pilots, hailing from 17 countries including Great Britain, the US, Switzerland and Norway, took part in the 2016 F3U Radio Control Multi-rotor FPV Racing World Cup.

The competition started in France in May and included nine events, the last of which took place in Osan City in Korea in November. Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and Belgium also hosted World Cup competitions, at which there had to be competitors from at least three different countries, throughout the year.

At each event, competitors took part in a series of races in which they flew a multi-rotor drone with at least three power-driven propellers and weighing up to 1kg.
The final results of this year’s competition were announced on November 25.

Its success means drone racing fans can look forward to an even bigger and better event next year. “I am really looking forward to the many events and race meetings already announced for 2017,” Delcommene added.

Multi-rotor FPV Racing

Multi-rotor FPV - or drone - racing competitions consist of successive races in which several (normally four to eight) radio controlled model aircraft fight it out to be the fastest around a pre-determined circuit.  The pilots steer their way around the course, which can be indoors or outdoors, using real-time images transmitted from the high-tech drones' on-board video cameras.

Photo credit: Vincent Delcommene