Drones in School Virtual Race Guidelines Released for Early 2026 Season

Belmont Hill School's BH Team 2 TWO claimed first place in the High School Marketing Video category of the January Virtual Race with a score of 101, the top mark in a competitive field that saw Bellbrook High School place two squads in the top three. The results cap a four-month virtual competition cycle that ran from November through February under the Drones in School program, a U.S.-focused STEM initiative integrating drone education with competition.

Bellbrook's Flying Saucers finished second with a score of 84, while the school's second entry, Drone-A-Soars, took third at 77.5. Palmer Trinity School's Falcon Drone rounded out the top four at 63.5. The Middle School Design and Engineering and Middle School Marketing Video categories both recorded no submissions for the January race.

The structure behind those results follows a straightforward monthly cadence. Each Virtual Race uses a UTT (Universal Time Trial) course that teams set up at their own location, record their times on the designated track, and submit verification online to enter the national leaderboard and earn a spot at the National Race. Teams can also submit a Team Portfolio, Team Display, and Marketing Video for evaluation alongside their timing files.

The season's four-race calendar ran on consistent release dates: the November UTT track dropped November 3 with a December 7 submission deadline, December's track released December 1 with a January 11 cutoff, January's track went live January 1 with a January 31 deadline, and February's track released February 1 with teams given until 11:59 PM ET on February 28 to post their times and assets. Each deadline carried the same 11:59 PM ET cutoff.

Entry requires two registration steps: enrolling the team with Drones in School, then registering specifically for Virtual Race events through RACES. Virtual Races are free for all registered teams. The program's tagline, "Race Locally, Compete Globally," captures the format's core appeal: schools without access to a physical race venue can still compete on a nationally ranked stage by building the UTT course on-site.

With the February deadline now passed, the program's early-2026 virtual season has closed. The full High School Portfolio and Display top-four results for January were not available at time of publication; the November race results page is also live on the Drones in School site for teams tracking their standing heading into the National Race.