Whooptopia returns to Phoenix for eighth year as top Tiny Whoop race

Whooptopia kept its grip on the Tiny Whoop calendar by returning to Phoenix, Arizona for its eighth year and loading the weekend with more than just racing. The 2026 edition was set for Presidents Day weekend, February 14-16, with 80 pilots split into five groups of 16, eight qualifying packs per pilot, Saturday qualifying, Sunday double-elimination brackets and a Monday bonus team-racing day called the weBLEED 500.

That structure is exactly why the event has become a benchmark for the class. Tiny Whoop racing lives on the narrowest, most accessible end of FPV competition, with ducted props, tight indoor layouts and a format that lets newer pilots get in the air without needing the budget or the space of open-class builds. Jesse Perkins, who says he created the first Tiny Whoop in 2015 and opened TinyWhoop.com in 2016, helped build the culture that made this segment more than a novelty. TinyWhoop.com says it has been supporting small artisans and innovators since 2016 and now counts more than 30,000 Tiny Whoop pilots in its Reddit community.

Whooptopia has turned that ecosystem into a yearly gathering point. The event’s 2026 track came out of a community design contest that drew more than double the submissions from the previous year, a clear sign that pilots are shaping the race before a single heat is flown. The site said the weekend depended on a wide support network, thanking pilots, spectators, volunteers, supporters, streamers, judges and teardown crews. That matters in a class where the atmosphere is part of the product and the event only works if the whole room is invested.

The business side reflects the same reality. NewbeeDrone was listed as the 2026 title sponsor, while sponsor packages were set at $2,500 for title, $1,250 for diamond and $500 for platinum, with livestream commercial segments built into the event inventory. The message is plain: Whooptopia is not just a race, it is a media product, a volunteer operation and a storefront for the Tiny Whoop identity all at once.

Phoenix keeps getting this event back because it offers something the headline-grabbing drone scene does not always sustain. It gives pilots a repeatable place, a familiar format and a community with enough density to keep rebuilding the same weekend in different ways. With results pages already on the books for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, Whooptopia has become less like a one-off championship and more like an annual proving ground, the kind of race that keeps Tiny Whoop relevant by staying close to its roots.