As the 2026 PKRA Summer Series Championship entered its closing stretch, Next Level Karting found another gear.
Races 8, 9, and 10 produced some of the team’s strongest results of the season, highlighted by five victories, eight additional podium finishes, back-to-back wins for Jett F., and an incredible four-race winning streak for Isaac P.
More importantly, the final three rounds showcased just how much the team has grown over the course of the summer. Drivers who began the season learning new classes were now battling for podiums. New faces joined the lineup. Championship contenders delivered under pressure. And across Junior 1, Junior 2, 206 Senior, and Rotax, NLK continued to establish a presence at the front of the field.
Race No. 8: Isaac Goes Back-to-Back
After scoring a huge victory in Race No. 7, Isaac P. arrived at Round 8 with momentum and made sure it continued.
Isaac captured his second consecutive 206 Senior victory, firmly establishing himself as the driver to beat during the closing stretch of the championship. Dean R. joined him on the podium with a strong 3rd-place finish, giving NLK two of the top three positions for the second race in a row.
Colin D. added a top-10 result in 10th, while Alex S. finished 13th and Carson G. 16th, adding even more depth to an increasingly stacked NLK Senior lineup.
Junior 1 also delivered one of the team’s strongest collective results of the evening. Travis A. narrowly missed the podium with a 4th-place finish, while Eli S. crossed the line directly behind him in 5th. Everly W. completed the NLK lineup in 11th.
Junior 2 proved to be a tougher night. Jack I. led the team in 8th, with Joe A. right behind him in 9th and Maddie L. finishing 12th. Mason G. and Kennedy S. unfortunately recorded DNFs, ending promising nights earlier than planned.
Still, with another victory and podium in Senior and two Junior 1 drivers inside the top five, Race No. 8 kept the team’s late-season momentum rolling.
Race No. 9: Jett Returns – and Returns to Victory Lane
Race No. 9 brought Jett F. back into the Junior 1 lineup, and he wasted no time reminding everyone what he could do.
Jett captured 1st place, adding another victory to a summer that has already featured some spectacular drives through the field. Whether starting at the front or carving his way through traffic, Jett has consistently demonstrated the speed and racecraft to get the job done when an opportunity presents itself.
Eli S. finished 8th, Travis A. 10th, and Everly W. 13th to complete the Junior 1 effort.
In Junior 2, Jack I. continued to move forward with a solid 7th-place finish, while Mason G. earned 9th. Maddie L. put together a strong effort on track but was unfortunately disqualified after the race for being under the required weight – a frustrating way to lose a result, but also one of those lessons every racer encounters sooner or later.
Then there was 206 Senior.
Once again, Isaac P. won.
His victory made it three consecutive wins dating back to Race No. 7, turning an impressive run of form into one of the stories of the second half of the summer championship.
And once again, he wasn’t alone on the podium.
Dean R. finished 3rd for the second consecutive round, continuing his own impressive run of consistency. Colin D. moved forward to finish 7th, while Carson G. unfortunately recorded a DNF.
Maverick M. added another trophy to the team’s haul in Rotax Junior Max, finishing 2nd and continuing his consistent run near the front of the class.
By the end of Race No. 9, Next Level had added three more trophies to the collection – and two of them came from drivers who were becoming very familiar with the podium.
Race No. 10: Finishing the Stretch With a Statement
If Race No. 10 was an opportunity to put an exclamation point on the team’s late-season surge, Next Level Karting took full advantage.
For the second race in a row, Jett F. stood on the top step of the Junior 1 podium.
Jett’s back-to-back victories provided another highlight in what has been a tremendous summer campaign. His ability to attack, pass, and perform under pressure has made him one of the team’s standout drivers throughout the series.
Eli S. added another strong top-five result in 5th, while Travis A. finished 8th, giving all three NLK Junior 1 drivers a top-10 finish.
Yet some of the biggest moments of the day came in the Junior 2 class.
After enduring the frustration of a DNF in Race No. 8, Kennedy S. came roaring back to the podium with a 3rd-place finish., just narrowly edging out her teammate Maddie L. at the finish line, who finished an excellent 4th after leading for several laps and battling at the front of the field throughout the race. These young ladies continue to demonstrate their pace that has become increasingly evident throughout the season.
Race No. 10 also showcased just how much the Next Level Junior 2 roster has grown. Erjon Z. made his way into the lineup and finished 13th, followed by Joe A. in 14th, Mason G. in 17th, and Jack I. in 18th after an early incident caused a group of karts to drop to the back.
Six team drivers on the Junior 2 grid represented more than just numbers – it was a glimpse at the growing depth of the program heading toward the next season.
Four Straight for Isaac
And then, once again, there was Isaac.
After winning Races 7, 8, and 9, Isaac P. entered Race No. 10 looking to extend an incredible run.
He did exactly that.
Isaac captured another 1st-place finish, making it four consecutive victories in 206 Senior and completing a clean sweep of Races 8, 9, and 10, while also securing the 2026 PKRA Summer Series Senior Championship!
It was a remarkable stretch from a driver whose speed had been evident long before the victories started arriving. Earlier in the season, Isaac had repeatedly recorded some of the fastest laps on track without always getting the finishing result to match. By the closing rounds, the pieces had come together.
Speed became consistency. Consistency became victories.
Behind him, Gavin C. returned to the podium with a strong 3rd-place finish, giving Next Level Karting yet another race with multiple Senior drivers collecting hardware.
Dean R. finished 7th in the race (and a 3rd-place overall finish in the Championship), with Nik H. 9th, Alex S. 14th, and Carson G. 15th, completing another massive NLK presence in one of PKRA’s deepest categories.
Three Races That Showed How Far We’ve Come
The results from Races 8, 9, and 10 tell an impressive story on their own.
Isaac P. won all three 206 Senior races – and four straight dating back to Race No. 7. Jett F. captured consecutive Junior 1 victories in Races 9 and 10. Dean R. earned back-to-back 3rd-place finishes. Maverick M. added another Rotax podium. Kennedy S. returned to the Junior 2 podium, while Maddie L. finished just one position behind her following her best race performance to-date.
But the bigger picture is what was happening throughout the field.
Travis A. and Eli S. continued battling near the front of Junior 1. Jack I., Joe A., Mason G., Maddie L., Kennedy S., and newcomer Erjon Z. gave Next Level Karting an increasingly formidable presence in Junior 2. Meanwhile, the Senior roster continued to expand while producing some of the strongest results of the entire team.
That’s what development looks like.
Not every weekend ends with a trophy. There are DNFs, mechanical failures, disqualifications, difficult qualifying sessions, and races where the result simply doesn’t reflect the effort. But over the course of a season, the progress becomes impossible to miss.
The final stretch of the PKRA Summer Series showed just how far Next Level Karting has come.
More drivers. More contenders. More podiums. More victories. And we’re not finished yet.
