Man, why ray? Simple trigger with tag and viola (I'm short on CPU on things like netbook)... as for hyperthrust I've just made it for fun so it boosts player and reduces health (it took ~5 min). As for Barrel Roll I just need to find an alternate way to keep two rotation variables. Why two? Becouse when there will be tracks that need ship to tilt left/right, i.e when track is changing from horizontal to vertical on world axis (from _ to |Pits are simple- this was one of the first things I made (Xpand indirectly taught me how to do this when I was learning Blender):
Cast a ray downwards- if it hits a certain material or object with a certain property increase the health value/ property of the ship. If health >= 100 then health = 100.
Speed pads are similar- if you detect a certain property or material add a percentage speed increase to the velocity of the player.) I need to tilt my ship too so I'll make Barrel Rolls without using animation.
Oh, and my zombie ships are sucking my Energy fast like hell xD It's hard to get through them now... but I have cannon to kill them(btw. Now placement system is not freezing when they're destroyed)