Usually the US servers are a lot of Combat/Eliminator anyway. Did those a few times to get the Destroyer of 50 ship trophy then split. Combat ain't my thang. I see a lot of Venom and Flash lobbies in the UK, and I always feel bad joining them because a lot of new pilots hang there. I prefer slower speeds because I like the technical barrel roll challenges of slower speeds. I think because of my flag, I get underestimated too.
Example: A few days ago I got a PM from someone that was obviously owning the lobby until I showed up. After I joined, I was winning by a mean time of about 8 seconds with a standard deviation of about 2 seconds. He PM'd he and said that "I wasn't expecting skills like that from a US pilot, Thnx for races ;)" Sent a new friend request immediately.
Is this a common thing? When you see a US pilot is the sentiment that we are easy targets? I only look for UK lobbies now, because truth be told, the competition is way more fierce in EU. There are a few ace pilots here that are decent. Kronicreaper is pretty decent as well as some others that aren't on my friend list, but I wish pilots like Wizardplay and Onlykpop would show up!
Also, are there any "elite" pilots that don't race Phantom? I don't see many elite pilots on lower speed classes which is a shame. I'm not up to snuff yet on Phantom, but I really love some close Venom/Flash barrel roll until you explode races.