EAGLE ROCK, Calif. — On a cool October night, after the stores in this suburban shopping mall closed, six young drone racers gathered in a subterranean parking garage here to hone their aviation skills. Using remote control joysticks, they navigated small X-shaped drones around pylons and beneath shopping carts, each vying for the lead.
The young men all work steady jobs, but racing drones, they said, has become a consuming new passion.
“It’s all I think about,” said Richard Howarth, one of the pilots. “I feel like we are at the beginning of something big.”
When an emerging sport is said to be underground, it is rarely meant to be this literal.