Hey, and welcome to the forums!

It's always a fun adventure to learn the faster speed classes for the first time, and it takes practice, but it sounds like you have 'The Addiction' just like the rest of us on the forum, so you'll be fine! Icaras and Goteki are my two favorite teams, you really can't go wrong with either, so good choice there. The best things to work on are racing line, barrel rolling, and most importantly SIDESHIFTS. I cannot stress this one enough. While they may be tricky to learn, they are a must. Also, this tutorial by a WipEout master will help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxzYkTralIA

Anyway, good luck to you with mastering the game, and I hope to see you on the track and on the forums!

And if you haven't checked it out yet, SlipStream GX, our WipEout-based forum project has become quite a nice piece of work, and even better, it will be free on final release! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPj6VmulOvI http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/for...-SlipStream-GX
It seems that you cannot currently download their latest demo because their website is, well, off. But hopefully that will be fixed soon!