Yesss!! I FINALLY beat Odessa Keys Rapier...

... but now I have to do Challenge 1 before I can unlock anything decent.

Damn it! Odessa Keys was hard enough using a computer keyboard with a PS emulator!

My strategy involved flying normally around most of the track, getting and using weapons, reaching as high a position as I could, and then right at the last corner (you know the one, it's EVIL) activating the autopilot... that allowed me to pass both the second and first-place ships just moments before the end of the lap.

WO2097, I love you.

That's my usual tactic for beating that track ;)

I'm not alone, then! It's a tactic that, unfortunately, depends on actually getting an autopilot somewhere around the course, which means you have to fly over as many weapon pads as you can until you actually get one.

And that means restarting the race again and again and again, as I did (but many of those were due to schoolboy errors).

not necessarily a lot of retries - I once held on to an autopilot for two and a half laps just to be sure I had one ready for the final stretch :D