Anew rising star has emerged in the world of K1 racing. Isaac Travers, a sophomore at Hoover High School who recently got into racing, just qualified for the national championship in San Diego, California. Travers has only been racing for a year and a half and just this year qualified for the national championship. He has been around cars all his life.

“My dad’s been a mechanic so I have been around cars and racing for a while,” he said. “I wanted to give racing a chance and here I am.”

This was his first time ever competing at this level. Travers is looking forward to going to San Diego and competing in the national championship.

“I’m more excited than anything,” he said. “I’m kind of scared just because of the new environment, new track, new karts just completely new set up.”

Travers fastest lap time on K1 is 25.8 seconds, and he is looking forward to the track he will be racing on in California.

“It is a lot more difficult than the track that I race here,” he said. “The track there is one and a half miles with 80 mph go karts.”

Travers has been preparing by watching film and getting mentally prepared for the race.

“I am watching a lot of film over the track and how to drive it but mainly that is the only thing that I am doing,” he said.

The biggest challenge for Travers will be that he does not know much about who he will be competing against in the championship. Going into the race, he only knows information about the first and third seed in Ohio, and because of this, he is nervous about how the other drivers will drive but he is also excited most to see how different they drive. Hoover K1 racer excels on the track

“Racing with other people and seeing if it is any different with what I race here,” he said.

After qualifying for the championship, Travers said that he had “one of the best feelings he has had in his life.”

“I got second, but it felt like a really amazing sensation of emotions,” he said. “I am glad that I got second because I wasn’t predicted to go anywhere near the top three.”

Before each race, Travers mentally prepares for what is to come and will be extra prepared for this upcoming race.

“I just mentally prepare the day before and of the race,” he said.

The state qualifiers were slightly complicated for everyone involved because of having to do an extra race due to car malfunctions.

“The races here we had to do three qualifiers instead of two because there was a problem with a time so it took about an hour and a half,” he said.

Despite the complications at the qualifiers, Travers was able to qualify and is now headed to the national championship and is looking forward to the future. Although he has not been racing for too long, it is something that he has always been interested in and has an end goal in mind.

“Well, Formula One — I would love to get into Formula One with McLaren Racing,” he said.