I've actually beat 2097 in a few races, and ironically they were on the slower speeds doing Pure Race sessions. I need to reach out to him and see if he wants to be my new nemesis. That role used to be scarfroggers, but I haven't seen him in ages. I personally like having someone I'm on par with, but only if I land every single roll and don't make mistakes. It makes the win worth something. I haven't seen much of MurcielagoMLRZ either now that I think about it, but then again I seldom race on Phantom. And that kind of points out why some of us like the barrel roll mechanic.

My reflexes are not as good as they use to be and I need glasses. I also usually race with a few beers which also hinders performance. But there is just as much skill in learning all the barrel rolls on slower tracks as there is in mastering lines in Phantom speeds. I personally race on the slower speeds because it can turn non-technical tracks into highly competitive super technical tracks where not exiting a turn at just the right angle means you miss out on a barrel roll chain. Example: Vineta K. This is an easy track. But when two masters of roll compete, the track changes, and in my opinion becomes one of the harder tracks.

A typical optimal lap on venom includes landing the following rolls:
• First, barrel roll in the tunnel. However you can hit the semi-hidden weapon and speed pad without sideshifting which is about 0.15 seconds faster. Also, you get the weapon pad to absorb the energy lost in the roll.

• Then if you were lucky enough to get a turbo, you can boost roll over the following straight. But then the question is do I save it for the big turbo roll at the end of the next tunnel before the straight on the entrance or burn it on the straight?

• If you wait, you can get the barrel roll on the gap leading to the final tunnel...
• ...and if you hit the hidden boost pad, you can sideshift over and barrel roll again,
• ...and if you land that, you can go for a third barrel roll on the final part of the track by using the momentum from the previous barrel roll to SS+roll over the speed pad on the right.

• The last roll if you save your turbo instead of burning it, can be used to go for a double by nosing up on the first speed pad of the race (so this is actually the second lap, but for sake of making my point, I count this as part of the first).

If you do all this in a single lap, you'll be far enough ahead that you'll likely be out of quake range by the end of the first lap. But if you are racing with someone else that know all these tricks, it comes down to making all of these each lap, and managing energy by knowing when to leave a bomb, or when to eat it instead. You make split decisions like if I have a turbo but have 1% energy left, do I absorb, or boost into a weapon pad taking a risk?

Without any turbos, there are 4-5 (that last one on near the starting point is stupid hard to do) rolls you can do. Missing just one means you lose unless you turbo lucky (which I never seem to do).

I can't even begin to understand the complexity of the lines in Phantom (though I'm not terrible at it, just not nearly as good as Flash/Venom). So barrel rolls provide a way to be an elite pilot on even the slowest speed classes. I find those races more exhilarating than a close Phantom race, because the attention to detail and micromanaging energy is just so much fun to do! I also like the fact that you seldom have to use airbrakes on Venom and Flash because a sideshift will normally suffice. I can probably (and plan to) eventually get that competitive in Phantom. Rapier is always kind of meh. It is fast enough to cause you to make some errors you can't recover from, but not so fast that you need to worry about breaking into each turn with perfect lines. Essentially, Rapier is fast enough to satisfy but is much harder to run technical races. I'd rather either go slower and focus on flying technical, or fly faster where airbrakes are a must.

Traditionally, venom and flash are for beginners. But those speeds also offer a highly competitive challenge. I think I only beat Cypher one time legitimately on a Phantom race (and by that I mean neither one of us missed a shortcut and were neck and neck the whole race). I consider Cypher to be an elite pilot for sure. But I always had the advantage at slower speed because I knew what was possible at slower speeds and I was more accustomed to relying on tricks to win. I know I will never have the reflexes to be amazing at Phantom, so having the barrel roll mechanic greatly increases my enjoyment and keeps me coming back for more.

So for the TLDR, the point is simple: keep things competitive at multiple levels and I think there has been a lot of attention to detail to do just that.

PS, after reading this I will likely spend 99 laps on each Phantom course, because that is where all the elite action seems to be going on these days!