Drone Racing League Preview With Nicholas Horbaczewski

The Drone Racing League is coming to a television near you. Intense speeds, crazy obstacle courses, and thrilling action will be on tap in October. Beyond the Flag conducted a pre-season preview interview to tell you more.

The Drone Racing League dream has become a reality for CEO Nicholas Horbaczewski, who will now see the DRL broadcast all over the world beginning in October. Beyond The Flag caught up with Horbaczewski to discuss the television deal and what fans can expect from this awesome new motorsports league.

Beyond The Flag: What can fans expect when they tune in to the first of five Drone Racing League events set to play on ESPN starting next month?

Nicholas Horbaczewski: Fans will be introduced to FPV [first person view] racing, watching six drones at a time may race through kilometer long courses at speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour. Courses will be built in venues that no other craft could race, ensuring there is a ton of crashing and that every lap is pushing pilots to the limit of their skills.

We want fans to find their heroes in the pilots, to care as much as we do about who wins and loses, and we think this first season will bring a new appreciation for extensions to traditional racing.

BTF: What do you think has captivated people the most about the Drone Racing League?

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NH: From our broadcast partners to the millions of fans who watched some form of content from early DRL races online, there is a collective thrill of watching high-speed craft race in close proximity through three-dimensional, futuristic race courses. The piloting skill is unparalleled, and the races themselves resonate with our basic need for competition.

As longtime fans of F1 and MotoGP, we love technical machines built to go as fast as possible, and we see drone racing as a natural extension into venues and spaces no other craft could navigate.

Drone racing is also an incredibly immersive sport. By using FPV goggles, pilots feel as if they are in the cockpit of the drone, which connects directly to the sensation of speeding in a car or skydiving. Once fans can experience that perspective from their favorite pilots, they are immediately hooked.

BTF: How much of a learning curve will there be before fans start to learn the vernacular and procedures that make up the Drone Racing League?

NH: It’ll happen quickly. While drone racing has its own language like many other race circuits, it’s all about winning and being the most consistently fast pilot. From this perspective, it’s incredibly exciting for new fans who can watch one race and be hooked without spending too much time trying to understand the rules or scoring. To get a head start and immerse yourself in DRL 101, check out our online Trick Wiki.

BTF: Now that you will have access to a mass audience across multiple platforms, how do you plan to capitalize on this and bring more fans to your sport?

NH: As a new sport and a company that is less than a year old, our focus has been on building the league, creating the technology and supporting the world’s greatest pilots by pushing their skills on one-of-a-kind courses.

The broadcast partnerships reflect a huge step to building a global fan base, but there is a lot more ahead for DRL to help introduce the sport to new audiences.

One example will be the commitment to create content beyond the race series, through our partnership with MGM Television and iconic producer Mark Burnett. With their expertise and our industry leading technology and racing, we can work to create new ways to engage fans around the world through broadcast and digital channels.

BTF: What race are you most excited for fans to see this season and why?

NH: The opportunity to broadcast DRL on ESPN and ESPN2 will connect fans to drone racing through one of the greatest sports channels in the world.

They will see iconic venues like Hard Rock Stadium – home of the Miami Dolphins – turned into a 3D race course and witness the creation of an entirely new sport from the very start. We are excited for them to see the skill, the passion for the sport, and the glimpse of the future that these races bring to life.

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BTF: Let’s talk about what it’s like to film these races for broadcast. What are some of the challenges you have faced and what goes into making sure everything is ready to air?

NH: It took over a year to figure out the best way to do drone racing as a televised sport. You’re talking about capturing something the size of a dinner plate going 90 miles per hour over a complicated, three-dimensional, kilometer long course. It’s never been done before and it’s such a difficult sport to capture on camera – unlike a 2D race course, the drones can change speed and direction in an instant.

We’ve had to build out teams of experts in event delivery, drone technology and media to support our vision for what it should be. It requires an incredibly complicated structure to support a technology-enabled sport, especially in the early days, and we’re fortunate that our team is so passionate about bringing this to the masses.

To capture the high-speed aerial action, DRL manages production in-house with a team of broadcast sports experts led by DRL Head of Media Tony Budding.

BTF: How far are we away from seeing Drone Racing League races at NASCAR tracks? Which one would you most want to feature a race at?

NH: We would absolutely love to bring the Drone Racing Leauge to a NASCAR track. We’ve worked with some incredible venues like the Kentucky Speedway in the past for other events, and they have incredible facilities and expert teams. As we scale the league and expand our races, we hope to be at as many incredible and iconic venues as possible.

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BTF: We know that the Drone Racing League will have five broadcast races this year including the championship; have you and any of the broadcast partners talked about adding more races as it goes along?

NH: We will have seven races as part of the 2017 Drone Racing League season and have signed multi-year, international event and media distribution agreements with ESPN, Sky and 7Sports. We are in the planning stages for next year’s races – including multiple international destinations in Europe – and working on the overall programming schedule.

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