CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Beattie Racing is excited to announce that they will be fielding a two-car CARS Tour Pro Late Model team for the 2026 season.  The first driver to be announced is “Lightning” London McKenzie, a 16-year-old racer from the Greensboro area who is the 2024 INEX National Semi-Pro Series champion in Legend Cars, and a winning Micro Sprint racer for Beattie Racing and SKE Chassis.  

McKenzie’s family owns the car, which will be maintained and serviced at the tracks by Beattie and his team.  The team has a car that will be available for rental on a race-by-race basis or for the entire season and is seeking talented, experienced drivers with funding to fill the available races. The intention is to have both cars in competition at all CARS Tour events in 2026. 

The opportunity for McKenzie, who has raced late models with Ross Dalton and shown the ability to be fast, is one he’s been looking forward to for some time. 

“My goal is to be a winning, championship-level NASCAR Cup Series driver,” the personable young racer said.  “I’ve been blessed to have a family that supports me as much as they can, and I’ve had top-notch people like Kyle (Beattie), Adam (Welch, KBR Crew Chief), and CJ ( D’Addario, Jr., 860 Motorsports Owner) to put winning cars under me and teach me how to drive them well. Ross and his team were great to me, and I enjoyed racing with them.  But, to be able to put this together with Kyle, and to have a similar deal to run with AK Performance in all 12 of CARS Tour’s Late Model Stock races, is an incredible opportunity.  I will be doing everything I can to prepare myself in every way possible to make the most of what I’ve been given here.”

Beattie, who is one of the top Outlaw Kart manufacturers in the nation, and whose son Karter is the winningest driver in Millbridge history at just 14 years of age, has had a lot of success as a driver on the pavement and as an owner.  Welch has worked for several NASCAR teams and is a winning racer himself.  They are looking forward to taking on the best that the CARS Tour has to offer in the Pro Late Model division next year. |

“We don’t like to do something just for the sake of doing it,” Beattie said. “We parked our late model program not because we didn’t like it, but because it takes so much money to do it at a high level.  When London and his family presented this opportunity, the first thing we all agreed on was that London had proven that he would do the work necessary to go out and race for wins. We knew that from racing with him in Micros. Once we realized that the resources we needed were there to give London what he needed to be competitive and further his skills development, we accepted the opportunity. We didn’t want to put all the time and effort in if it wasn’t going to be positive for him and for us.”

Beattie also spoke about why he and the team wanted to add the second car.  “It’s an advantage to have two cars when you can do that the right way,” he explained. “It gives you two drivers and two cars to work with, and that can often produce ideas that maybe London, or us, wouldn’t have thought about, which ends up making both cars stronger.  And, since we are in the business of providing winning cars for drivers across both dirt and pavement, we may find some additional drivers like London who would like to get experience on both surfaces.  Either way, it lets us expand our program in a way that makes sense, because we already have one car that we know is full-time, so it lets us now add the second car for as many races as we can without taking away from our effort with London.”

Julian DaCosta, who will race ARCA Menards West for Nitro Motorsports in 2026 after competing well in the Trans-Am Series for them this season, and long-time Kyle Beattie Racing driver Austin Thompson will see duty in the team car next season, but races are still available for others.  

Anyone interested in discussing race availability with Beattie for either the CARS Tour or the team’s Outlaw Karts and Micro Sprint programs can email Kyle directly at kylebeattieracing@yahoo.com.