PrincessJ edges Kalli to win 2026 collegiate drone racing title

PrincessJ won by the slimmest of margins in Tulsa, and the championship turned on a final lap that left Kalli just short of the Collegiate Drone Racing Championship 2026 title. A final-race video posted after the event framed the deciding moment as a close call between the two pilots, with the last lap proving to be the difference in a race that stayed tight throughout.

The finish mattered because this was the season finale of the Collegiate Drone Racing Association, not a throwaway exhibition. Skyway36 Droneport & Technology Innovation Center hosted the championship at 1211 W 36th St N, with 12 schools and more than 50 pilots in the mix. The Academy of Model Aeronautics billed the weekend as the annual College Drone Racing Championship, open to the public and free, with qualifying on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and racing on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The field size and the venue gave the result a national-stage feel that matched the pressure on the line.

The title swing showed how narrow the gap has become at the top of collegiate FPV racing. MultiGP’s broadcast package, with Doug Kling directing the stream and Joe Scully on commentary, treated the event like a major property rather than a campus novelty. An official fly-through of the Tulsa course also underlined how much preparation goes into one of these finishes: in elite drone racing, the course preview, the line choice, and the recovery speed after a mistake can decide a championship before the final gate is even in view.

That is what made PrincessJ’s edge over Kalli so compelling. One lap, one opening, one cleaner run through the closing stretch was enough to flip the title, and that kind of margin is exactly what separates elite collegiate racecraft from the rest of the pack. The event’s scale, from the North Carolina Drone Club sponsorship to the production at Skyway36, reflected how far the sport has grown. AMA says it is the world’s largest sport aviation organization with 165,000 members, while MultiGP says it has more than 30,000 registered pilots and 500 active chapters worldwide. Put together, the championship was bigger than a trophy race. It was proof that collegiate drone racing now sits inside a serious competitive pipeline, where one mistake on the last lap can decide everything.