Drone racers want to bring national competition to Buffalo

There’s a new push to make Western New York a hot spot for drone racing. It’s one of the worlds newest televised sports: Drone racing.

Buffalo’s skyline could be the next destination for a national competition.

With any luck, you’ll soon seen these mini quads buzzing around Buffalo, in a national drone racing competition

Internationally ranked Drone Racing Pilots AJ Goin and Kevin McCleary fly up and down silos, getting a view of “Riverworks.”

McCleary said, “I was really surprised by the venue. It’s amazing. You can turn an old urban environment into something, so cool. It’s really kind of artistic.”

And like any race, speed is key.

It looks like something out of “Back To The Future,” a camera on the front, connects to goggles, giving the Pilot a birds eye view. Goin said, “You’re flying with a first person view through the goggles and you’re seeing what the drones see, so you’re having an out of body experience.”

Goin, known  competitively as “Awkbots” is a former Motocross Driver. Injuries ended his time on that track, but  he says this type of race is way better. “It’s something that’s very euphoric, and you get into this very zen state. You’re just flying through the world like you’ve always wanted to as a kid, and had dreams about.”

Now he’s traveling all over the world flying.

In this sport, crashes happen. And the adrenaline is very real. Goin said, “It hits you hard, like you just crashed. Tthe good thing is, you just walk over and pick it up, and fix it and do it again.”

Now McCleary and Goin want to bring the next big race to Buffalo.

The team most recently took 5th place in the one million dollar Dubai Worlds competition.
As early as next June, they plan to sponsor the race here, through their social media connections, and plan to bring other international racers to Buffalo.