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Droid racer

"Those droid racers are fast, and they don't care if they get smashed by an asteroid."

―Freya Fenris^[1]

A droid racer, also known as a racer droid, was a type of fast droid starfighter with four wings that could transform into legs. The wings could be used to grab other spacecraft, as well, and the droid was also equipped with four blasters at its wingtips and a pair of blasters at its rear. When in flight mode, a droid racer could be mistaken for a starfighter piloted by an organic individual.

Vranki, the Hutt owner of Vranki's Hotel and Casino in the Outer Rim Territories' Voxx Cluster, owned at least seven droid racers that he used on a nearby starfighter racing circuit. The droids shared their programming with hologames in the casino. In 34 ABY, the mobile station Colossus arrived in the Voxx Cluster so that its Ace Squadron pilots could earn it much-needed credits by racing on Vranki's circuit. When the pilot Hype Fazon competed against one of the droid racers, however, the latter prevailed by grabbing Fazon's starfighter and launching it backwards.

The other Ace Squadron pilots subsequently entered into a series of races Vranki referred to as the Voxx Vortex 5000, in which the Hutt and the droid racers employed similarly underhanded tactics against them while the Colossus's mechanic Neeku Vozo attempted to slice into the droids' system. Ultimately, after the droid racers won three of the races, Kazuda Xiono emerged victorious during a relay race that saw him and Torra Doza competing against two of the droids.

Description[]

"The droid ship has just activated weapons!"
"What? Weapons?"

―Neeko Vozo and Torra Doza^[1]

DroidRacerSideView-TheVoxxVortex5000 — A droid racer seen from the side

A droid racer,^[1] also referred to as a racer droid,^[2] was a type of droid starfighter.^[1] It had four wings that extended to the sides and front of its body.^[2] The droid's head was shaped like a starfighter's cockpit with two opaque viewports. However, the head also had two lateral optical sensors and it could extend on a neck-like connector—which allowed it to swivel to the sides—as well as split open along its middle, revealing another set of visual sensors. The droid racer had five sublight engines: a central unit located at the rear of its body and four engines located at the posterior ends of its wings.^[1] Each of the droid's four wingtips was equipped with a blaster, and the droid additionally had two pairs of extendable rear-facing blasters mounted on either side of its central engine.^[2]

DroidWalks-TheVoxxVortex5000 — A droid racer assumes walking configuration.

From its wingtips to the central engine unit, the droid racer measured approximately nine to ten times the length of an average humanoid being.^[2] It had gray– and black-colored plating, and its engine exhaust jets could be in different colors such as red, yellow, blue, magenta, purple, or cyan. The droid racers employed by Vranki also had racing stripes painted on in blue, dark gray, yellow, magenta, purple, and red colors.^[1]

The droid racer's wings could transform into four articulated legs, which could be used to walk on solid surfaces or to grab other spacecraft^[1] in order to slow down or damage them.^[3] The wings were also equipped with several maneuvering jet nozzles for the purpose of carefully adjusting the droid's orientation in outer space. Droid racers were capable of spaceflight as fast^[1] as the best racing spacecraft,^[3] and Vranki also characterized them as "very resilient." In addition, the droid racer possessed a droid brain core that could^[1] share its programming^[3] with a racing hologame.^[1]

History[]

Intimidating competitors[]

"I'm always interested in a little… friendly racing."

―Vranki, while pointing to a trio of his droid racers^[1]

By 34 ABY,^[4] Vranki, the owner of the Voxx Cluster's Vranki's Hotel and Casino^[1] in the Outer Rim Territories,^[3] owned at least seven droid racers that he used on a nearby deluxe high-stakes starfighter racing circuit. The droids were programmatically connected to hologames in the casino that^[1] the mechanic^[3] Neeku Vozo would characterize as "elaborate." One of those games itself depicted a droid racer on an asteroid racing circuit.^[1]

That year,^[4] the mobile station Colossus arrived in the Voxx Cluster so that the former's Ace Squadron pilots could participate in racing and thereby earn the station much-needed credits. When the Colossus's captain, Imanuel Doza, accompanied by Vozo,^[1] the mechanic^[3] Jarek Yeager, and the Ace Squadron members Hype Fazon, Torra Doza, Kazuda Xiono, Freya Fenris, Griff Halloran, and Bo Keevil, visited Vranki's Hotel and Casino, Yeager and the captain expressed to Vranki their interest in a competition. The Hutt invited them to view a trio of droid racers—units with blue, dark gray, and yellow racing stripes—flying through the racing circuit's asteroid field. Observed by Xiono and Torra Doza through the casino's viewport, the droids—whom the visitors at first mistook for spacecraft piloted by organic beings—maneuvered through the asteroids until the gray-painted racer underwent a fiery crash into one of the space rocks. Meanwhile, in another section of the casino, Vozo began playing the asteroid racing hologame, in the process concluding that its algorithms had been modified so as to render negligible the player's probability of winning.^[1]

Race and game[]

"Pshhh. The same dirty tricks Vranki's droids use too. Wait a minute. Neeku, do you think the droids out there and these games are somehow connected?"
"Perhaps. If these holo-games and the racers share the same droid brain core, then I believe so."

―Hype Fazon and Neeku Vozo^[1]

DroidGrabs-TheVoxxVortex5000 — A droid racer grabs the racing starfighter piloted by Hype Fazon.

Fazon, a former star pilot on the Voxx Cluster racing circuit, subsequently agreed to compete against one of Vranki's racers—dubbed "Team Vranki"—on a straight run through the asteroid field. During the race against a droid with blue coloring, the Rodian pilot noted his competitor's speed—though still confidently claiming himself to be even faster. On the finish run, however, the droid racer transformed its wings into legs and grabbed Fazon's starfighter, surprising and scaring the pilot—and also revealing to the visitors from the Colossus the true nature of Team Vranki's racers. The droid subsequently launched the vehicle backwards and proceeded to fly through the finish hoop first, thereby winning the race.^[1]

Later, while inside the casino, Fazon was accusing Vranki of cheating by not having revealed beforehand that his competitor would be a droid as the blue-striped racer landed on the station's exterior and walked by the gambling establishment's viewport. Afterward, the Rodian, who observed Vozo playing the hologame, noticed that the game featured underhanded tactics the former felt resembled those employed by Team Vranki's droids, with the pilot beginning to wonder about a possible connection between the game and the racers. Vozo, noting similar logistical patterns in both the hologames and the droid racer performance on the physical racing circuit, believed that it was possible the two entities had similar programming.^[1]

Hutt's honor[]

"But we have our own advantage. Neeko can determine the algorithm of Vranki's racers. He'll be on the comm to guide us."
"Kaz, are you telling me you based this whole bet on Neeko thinking a holo-game and those droid racers are the same? They don't have anything in common! You know why, Kaz? Because it's a holo-game!"

―Kazuda Xiono and Freya Fenris^[1]

NeekuDatapad-TheVoxxVortex5000 — During the Voxx Vortex 5000, Neeku Vozo monitored the droid racers via a datapad.

Xiono and Vozo subsequently came up with a plan that involved the latter determining the operational algorithm used by the droid racers—in order to slice into their system—while the Ace Squadron pilots were competing against the droids in a series of races Vranki dubbed the Voxx Vortex 5000. The first pilot to do so was Fenris, racing against a yellow-striped unit. Vozo monitored the race on a datapad that featured a schematic of the droid racer as well as both it and Fenris's trajectories. At one point, the mechanic warned the pilot that the droid was approaching her left blind spot, to which Fenris responded with her determination to not let it overtake her on the track. The droid, however, then began ramming into her craft and ultimately prevailed in the race.^[1]

Next, during a race between Keevil and a droid racer with magenta striping, Vranki ensured another victory for his team by activating hidden magnetic mines on the race course that distracted the Ace Squadron pilot and thereby let the droid finish first. The Hutt likewise cheated when Halloran competed against a purple-painted droid racer, activating several cannons placed on the racing circuit's asteroids that slowed the Colossus pilot down enough to ensure a win for the droid.^[1]

Relay race[]

"We'll do a relay race. Me and Torra versus you and your droids."

―Kazuda Xiono, to Vranki^[1]

DroidShoots-TheVoxxVortex5000 — A droid racer uses its rear blaster against Kazuda Xiono.

Finally, Xiono proposed a relay race, pitting Torra and himself against droid racers with dark gray and red stripes respectively. Vozo warned Torra to stay above the position of^[1] her^[3] opponent due to the latter's flight plan being erratic; in return, she expressed her belief that a "real" pilot was better than any droid one. Nevertheless, like her fellow pilots, Torra was also slowed down from her lead position when the droid racer opened fire on her with its blasters—a fact that Vozo was able to warn her of beforehand thanks to his monitoring of the droid—damaging her vessel in the process.^[1]

Due to being distracted from the race by a pair of Kowakian monkey-lizards, Vozo was not able to warn Xiono of his droid competitor using its rear blasters against him, and the droid also later followed the pilot when he went off the course in order to travel straight toward its finish hoop. Just as the droid racing against Fazon had done before, Xiono's opponent attempted to grab his starfighter; however, the pilot evaded all of its attempts and ultimately overtook the droid, winning the race.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

DroidRacerConceptArt-SWEpisodeGuide — Concept art of the droid racer

Droid racers were introduced in "The Voxx Vortex 5000,"^[1] the ninth episode of the second season of the television series Star Wars Resistance. The episode was aired on December 1, 2019.^[5] Prior to the debut of the episode, the droid model was depicted in a trailer for Star Wars Resistance Season Two released on the official Star Wars YouTube channel on August 14 of the same year.^[6]

Lucasfilm Animation artist Jason Pichon made a concept art illustration of a droid racer on April 3, 2018, and the image, which was included in the accompanying StarWars.com episode guide for "The Voxx Vortex 5000," also introduced the alternate name "racer droid." The concept artwork indicated that the droid racers would have mirrored racing decals reading "Jr-1" in Aurebesh on both of their sides;^[2] however, this was not reflected in the episode. One sound effect used in "The Voxx Vortex 5000" for the droid racers shares similarities with^[1] that used for vulture droid starfighters in^[7] the 1999 prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.^[8]