• Vinnie is the fastest character. You should definitely check out rd7979 45:03 segmented run to get an idea of how fast Vinnie can go:

• Each round has 5 stages. As long as you finish the round at least in 3rd place (usually between 600-700 points), you will qualify for the next round.

• A couple of seconds after starting a race, you can press START and select "Retire? YES" in the menu to clear the stage immediately. Be aware of your points by the final stage of the round so you get enough points to qualify.

• (Info from rd7979 run): Vinnie is given a good acceleration at the beginning of every course when B button is tapped rapidly. By pressing Left or Right 4 times, Vinnie will turn left or turn right by 90 degrees. That should help Vinnie stay on the road when he's jumping upward or downward. Vinnie has the Attack 'Shooting Star', which allows him to jump so as to gain speed and hit opponents, and Special Ability 'Tornado Twirl', used along with B button to boost speed. I utilized the main technique: 'Tornado Twirl' + Tap B button + 'Shooting Star' (Jump) + Change Vinnie's direction in the air + Land

TAS NOTES From Baxter's 5:12 run in TASvideos:

Technique's I basically tried to optimize a movie, by keeping the speed as high as possible. I did this mainly by watching 7E1790, which gives the speed of the vehicle. Here is a list of data which follows from this adress:

If you press B, your speed will increase untill you reach maximum speed. For Vinnie, with fully upgraded engine, which speed is 2673 Each 28 frames your maximum speed will go up by 1. If you slow down, you will be at this new maximum speed again. If you bump into something, your maximum speed will be 2673 again. (This increase of 1 isn't of importance for the movie.)

Tapping B five times will add 1575 to your speed. This van only be done every 99 frames. This can be seen by watching the following RAM address: 7E17C1.

Vinnie’s weapon (available after the first lap) makes him jump in the air, by pressing Y, and move him down very fast with Y again. Jumping in the air can make you go both faster and slower, depending on your speed. Pressing Y the second time will add 1000 to your speed. It also allows you to make corners in the air, and have more control over your height

Before starting (when the game goes 3…2…1…) tapping B as much as possible will make you have a faster start. There is a maximum however, with tapping 31 times. It can be seen with the following RAM address: 7E17C0.

Pressing L or R when making a corner will make you spin. This is faster than the original maximum speed, but since I am going way faster than that, this technique is only used twice (at the third track) in the entire TAS.

All of these thing will add to your speed. This is why eventually Vinnie moves ridiculously fast. There is however a maximum. If you go faster than this maximum, you will travel backwards instead of forward. This is why I can’t go any faster than 16384. When watching my speed at the TAS, you’ll notice (most of the time) the speed goes up to ~16300, then decreases to ~15000 and some form of speedup is used to go up to ~16300 again.

There are also things that slow you down. With slowing down, I mean that the speed is getting lower until it reaches you reach the maximum speed of 2675. There is a clear difference between slowing down before you use your weapon, and after (read after the first lap) it:

When normally driving (pressing B ) you slow down 24 per frame. After using the weapon, you slow down 40 per frame. When in the air, you won’t lose any speed, after using your weapon, you will lose 16 per frame while being in the air. You will lose even more when braking by pressing X (yes, I also brake in the TAS to keep under 16384) and when moving uphill.