Matthew Patane

mpatane@dmreg.com

Zack Christopherson cut it close as he finished up his third lap of a race.

Time was ticking down and he had just a few seconds to pass through the finish line. Making it would mean he could start a fourth lap, adding to his total count for the day.

Rounding the last flag in a slalom with just five second to go, he put in a boost of speed down the final straightaway and made it through the finish line just as an automated voice notified racers there was one second left.

He had never left the sidelines of the race. His drone had, though.

Christopherson was one of eight people who came out to a field in Ankeny on a recent Saturday to race their drones. They were taking part in a relatively new sport that has garnered more attention and a growing audience in the last few years.

Saturday's race was the sixth hosted by 515FPV, a local drone racing chapter organized by Will Dobbins of Des Moines. Dobbins set up the chapter under MultiGP, a Florida-based drone racing league that provides support to local groups.

Dobbins arrived early to lay out the course for the race, including a particularly difficult curve that proved dire for many of the day's racers.

"This corner will claim many lives today," Dobbins told racers ahead of the race.

The races work like this:

Four racers at a time go against each other in heats that last two minutes. Racers win by taking the most laps around the course in that time, not by having the fastest pace. If racers start a new lap, they can complete it and count it toward their score even if time runs out while they are flying.

Each of the drones, usually a quadcopter, is equipped with small cameras that transmit video to headsets worn by each racer. The videos give each racer a first-person perspective as they fly the course.

"The first time you fly by yourself, you have this weird out-of-body experience," said Christopherson, who drove from Lincoln, Neb. "You are in the quad."

Spectators can also put on headsets tuned to specific drones to get the same first-person view.

Crashes are plenty and expected. No drone came out of the races unscathed, either hitting each other, flags, trees or the ground.

515FPV's group is still small, but Dobbins and others hope to grow local interest in the sport and send some racers to bigger events later this year.

"We’ve got some serious talent here locally, it’s just a matter of getting enough people and an organization behind it," he said.

Racers at Saturday's event were mainly self-taught enthusiasts who built their own drones specifically for racing. Milling around ahead of time, they talked shop, comparing notes on their equipment and the type of headsets they prefer.

They said they can easily spend a few hundred dollars building their drones. The vehicles hit speeds of about 30 miles per hour Saturday, but racers said they can get up to 70 or 80 mph.

The sport has taken off just as the adoption of drones, otherwise known as unmanned aerial vehicles, has spiked.

"We’re in the infancy of it right now," said Michael Gianoutsos, chief marketing officer for MultiGP. Still, he said MultiGP has signed up more than 8,000 members and 300 chapters since it started in February 2015.

With more eyes also comes more cash flowing into the sport.

One of the larger races of late, the World Drone Prix in Dubai, came with $1 million in prizes. The racer who took first place went home with $250,000.

The Drone Racing League, a company trying to setup races around the country, has attracted investment from the owner of the Miami Dolphins and a New York venture capital firm, according to Bloomberg.