Sport Drone racing Jurisdiction International Headquarters Palm Bay, Florida | Category Air sports Founded 2015 (2015) President Chris Thomas | |
MultiGP is an American for profit business that governs and manages a radio-controlled drone racing league with over 10,000 members and 400 chapters worldwide.
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MultiGP hosts competition-based tournaments, free-fly gatherings and casual events.
Founded by Chris Thomas in February 2015, this FPV (first-person view) league has been involved in the organization and management of over 2500 races worldwide.
MultiGP offices are located in Palm Bay, Florida.
MultiGP is a Special Interest Group (SIG) with The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and has agreed to manage the communications, development, competition, and continued safety efforts of the FPV racing community within the AMA.
History
In January 2015 Chris Thomas became involved with his local flying club, Brevard Multirotor. This group of FPV enthusiasts was holding events and races in the Brevard County region of Florida. At the time there was a need for someone to step in and help the pilots manage video frequencies and better organize the events in the area. Chris enthusiastically took the reigns! He created a spreadsheet and some frequency cards that helped managed the races. In the last weeks of February 2015 MultiGP was created and started aiding local races in the Central Florida area. The first major event MultiGP assisted with was the CFL FPV event held in Leesburg, FL the last weekend in March 2015.
MultiGP developed a web-based application that would soon replace the spreadsheet and frequency cards. RaceSync is the proprietary software that assigns racing slots and video frequencies in real time, and allows pilots to use their smartphones to check-in when they arrive for a race and assign them a race slot and optimum video frequency that will not interfere with the other pilots in the race.
In March 2016 the software LapSync was created by James Elkins. LapSync is the timing system component of MultiGP and communicates with RaceSync. LapSync currently works with both Trackmate and I-Lap infrared transponder systems. In a 90-day period at the end of 2016 Lapsync had counted 15,307 laps for MultiGP.
Racing Classes
Beginning in 2015, MultiGp created a set of defined racing classes which level the playing field so one pilot doesn’t have an advantage over another by using more powerful equipment. This allows the pilot’s skill to win the race, not their equipment.
As of 2016 MultiGp has defined classes in Multirotors, Race Wings and Fixed Wings.
MultiGP Universal Time Trial Tracks
In 2015 MultiGp introduced the first Universal Time Trial Track. Universal Time Trial Tracks allow FPV pilots to compete against each other across the world by providing standardized local courses partnered with a global leaderboard.
As of 2017 there are currently five different Universal Time Trial Tracks.
National Championship
In 2016 MultiGP introduced the Regional Series and National Championship race format. The MultiGP Regional Series allows pilots to compete on local, regional and ultimately a national level via the 2016 MultiGP Drone Racing Championships.
The league's first national racing championship was held at AMA headquarters in Muncie, Indiana on September 4th, 2016. Over 100 pilots arrived on-site to battle for this Championship event.