I was wondering if any of you have specific starting strategies that you employ depending on the track, your position on the grid, and what ship you're using.
I race Icaras most of the time, which of course does not have great thrust. Up until recently, I would use the turbo start every time, head for the first SP or Pick-Up and hope for the best. However, it's become clear that on a lot of tracks this isn't necessarily the best strategy.
For example, on Anulpha Pass (rev), I just use normal starting acceleration and then let everyone zip past. It doesn't matter if I am first on the grid because anyone not using Icaras will beat me to that first pick-up, and then the chaos starts. So now, I just let everyone go ahead, then I crawl behind and have a better opportunity to get Turbos, Quakes, and missiles so I can creep back to the front of the grid (hopefully) while everyone stays in a cluster destroying each other.
Aside from Anulpha Pass Rev, this has also been useful for me on sol2 when there are more than 3 other ships racing.
Maybe there is no science to this and I'm just letting different versions of luck govern my experience, so I thought I would ask if anyone else has specific thinking on how they start certain races.