*WR* [

A sub-35!!

  / mx_seitan  

I have started working on the sandbag strats with the USCs. On NES, there are 9 races with no known USCs. If I get 2nd place on 7 of those, then I can cut out a Ruff Trux bonus level, saving time (in theory at least.) Cue Ball Circuit (6) is usually a good one to get 1st place on, but it was a disaster lol, so I turned it into a sandbag. It worked out, and I had more flexibility later in the game.

I'm using a glitch called Ultra Short Cuts, or USCs. You trick the game into thinking you've completed a lap when you haven't. You can do this by driving out-of-bounds on the same tile as a hazard (grease, syrup/honey, binder, cereal box, sand dunes, etc.) Find a way to the (roughly) opposite point of the race, and drive into the track. (So if you go out of bounds 10% or 35% through the track, you'll want to look for the glitch tile about 60% or 85% of the way through.)

March explains: "what I found is that if you leave the road from an obstacle tile, and then touch the checkpoint right before the increment checkpoint, it will explode you, respawn you at the last checkpoint you touched before the obstacle... and give you a free lap"

"what's also crazy is you can manipulate the position of the critical checkpoint by avoiding tiles between the last valid checkpoint and the obstacle, which I do in that highlight. if I touched the checkpoint right before the dune, the critical checkpoint would be a few tiles further down the road and harder to hit"

I lost some time on Pencil Plateaux (15), Wide Awake War Zone (19) and Go For It (24), but this run also had some really fast bonus levels (and one fewer of them). Given all the time there is still to save, I think a 33- (or even 32) minute run is possible.

===RUN STATS===

Green: Anne, Spider, Emilio, Walter
Red: Cherry, Bonnie, Joel
Blue: Chen, Dwayne, Mike

2nd place [7 total]: Cue Ball Circuit (6), Bermuda Bathtub (8), Potted Passage (10), Bedroom Battlefield (13), Pitfall Pockets (14), Shrubbery Twist (17), Leafy Bends (22)

** Why try to get 2nd place? ** Micro Machines (on NES) awards you with a bonus level/free life after you complete 3 races in First Place. They don't have to be consecutive. If you can save any time by cutting out an unnecessary bonus level, then it makes sense to try.