BTW League - Race #5

Apr 11

3 min read

Updated: Oct 13

This was the final event in the BTW League for 2025/26 season. The final opportunity to score those all important BTW points in the league table. And all pilots came out swinging, giving it their very best right to the end, with a result no one expected!

With an early start and a new track this one had some unique features. One of which I will definitely be copying for future races. It was a rising and expanding diameter spiral which means you could see quite far ahead of your position to the next pilot chasing them around in a circle. I think any more than three circuits however, and you might start to get a little dizzy. Especially when I was chasing Eco for a good part of a lap!

During qualifying there was the typical back and forth of positions as pilots slowly improved their two consecutive lap times. It took some learning to find the lines and what would be smooth and fast.

In the last few rounds of quals there was a really hot competition between blueprint and James TX. Each one going out hard and trying to beat the other. Just three tenths of a second separated them by the end of qualifying.

Meanwhile, Minirollsrule set an early PB, and then struggled to better it for the entire qualifying session. Battles with drunk gyro and different whoops plagued his flights forcing re-tuning. But this all paid off in the end with a whoop that flew beautifully in the finals.

While this was going on, Pickle FPV was on a mission to break all his whoop canopies while drifting round corners. Whereas Eco silently got on with the job of grinding out faster and faster laps, quietly creeping up on TQ position.

The surprise result was Blueprint making it into the A main finals, just pipping James TX by a few tenths of a second. Unfortunately, even as fast as pickle FPV can race, he just couldn't string two consecutive fast laps together and so dropped into the B main finals.

We took a break for lunch with the qualifying table looking like this.

Qualifiying
Position	Pilot
1	Eco
2	MiniR๑llsRule
3	Blueprint
4	Pickle fpv
5	JamesTX

B Main Finals

In the B-main finals it was a race of opposing styles. James TX having been in FPV for many years versus Pickle FPV who joined us just six months ago. James with the super tight, consistent and controlled flights versus Pickle used to full send freestyle simulators where crashing has no consequence.

All 3 races were close but in every one of them, James TX flew smoothly and consistently, yet, slower than Pickle. But as with the story of the tortoise and the hare, slow(er) does not necessarily equal last. Pickle can fly fast and string several gates together quickly but crashing too often allowed James TX to claw him back in and eventually take the lead in all three races. However, it was not all yoothful enthusiasm that cost Pickle the races, unfortunately in the last race he got tied up on some carpet thread forcing a DNF.

With a perfect run of wins totaling 30 points James tx takes 4th place leaving pickle in fifth overall. But at least he didn't spend the whole race fixing his whoops.

A Main Finals

Having reached the A Main Final, Blueprint took the first win by a long margin. It was fully deserved, he flew smoothly and consistently while Minirollsrule and Eco played dodgems in the background. With the echo of Eco’s win at the last race ringing in Minirollsrule’s ears, he pushed hard to bring it back for the next 2 races getting back to back 1st place finishes. Unfortunately for Eco, now Blueprint was into the A Mains he had some unexpected competition and struggled to perform. Blueprint took 2nd twice leaving a clean sweep of 3rd’s for Eco.

— STOP PRESS —

While reviewing the DVR for some super slick social media posting, new evidence has come to light to force the results to be reviewed!

https://youtu.be/SAiywjgHfuU

It turns out, the supposed winner, Minirollsrule, actually missed a gate! This error was not corrected and so by finishing the race without completing all the gates on all the laps, his race has been disqualified. Minirollsrule takes a DNF and zero points in the 2nd race, therefore the final results for this race follow: