There’s nothing quite like watching a ton of vehicles tear through the countryside during a UTV race. Competitive UTV racing has quickly become one of the most exciting off-road motorsports around, and it keeps gaining in popularity. The only problem is that it’s hard to follow the action through the winding tracks and wild terrain. Thanks to the off-road nature of many UTV races, it can be difficult for camera crews to follow along and bring great shots to spectators. But it looks like things are going to get a whole lot easier. With the rising popularity of drones, we can now easily keep track of the races and get closer than ever before, regardless of the lay of the land.
Drones have come a long way from a fun hobby to a full-on sport. Drone racing leagues are steadily becoming big business, and you might have noticed them being televised on ESPN. The drone racing community is looking to establish itself</a> with leagues, pilots, and competitions. This push is also proving advantageous for drone technology as a whole. Thanks to this level of attention, drones are now much faster, more agile, and more powerful. This makes them ideal not just for racing against each other, but also for covering other races. A high-speed drone with a talented pilot could potentially go anywhere that UTVs can, and it offers a better view of the action than ever before.
We’ve already seen drones be used to great effect in another popular off-road competition: rally racing. Rally races have generally been viewed as one of the toughest motorsports to film. With long courses stretched out over often rough and unwieldy landscapes, it’s been difficult and expensive trying to get a good shot, much less cover an entire race. Generally, the best that fans could hope for would be a camera positioned at a particular turn or a larger helicopter shot. Drones are able to get closer to the competition, and can zip through trees and canyons while staying right on top of the pack. They could do the same thing for UTV racing, and it could help blow the sport wide open.
We’ve already seen some adventurous cameramen using drones to great effect to capture terrific footage of death-defying stunts. In fact, dedicated videographers are willing to go to great lengths to find the perfect shot, even at the expense of their equipment. Still, it’s a small sacrifice to pay for mind-blowing coverage that we never could have imagined even a decade ago.
As the technology behind drones and cameras keeps improving, so too will the way we view motorsports. Now that we finally have devices capable of keeping up with the vehicles themselves, fans can have a clearer view of what’s going on. It’s not unlikely that we might also see a surge in additional interest. There’s never been a better time to tune in to UTV racing, and it’s only going to keep getting better from here.