Battle Gear 3: What's the Secret?

[C']

Found out last night that Namco Station (Trafford) have Battle Gear 3 installed (could have been there for weeks for all I know - stupid lack of funds ft: ^^ ). I've heard a lot about this game from some fellow Initial D players I've spoken with and was eagerly awaiting the PS2 conversion due out next week. However, seeing the arcade machine proved too tempting and immediately dropped 5 coins in to try it out.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't seem to be able to compete with the AI racers at all. I immediately went for Manual Transmission and chose an FD (sacrilege that yellow isn't a colour option) and in all 5 races I could place no better than 2nd on the beginner course at 2 star difficulty. I tried following the line that the leading car took but was still completely unable to gain on him sufficiently to overtake. I did notice that I seemed to be losing a few km/h when the car drifted out even slightly dropping down to about 150km/h and requiring a downshift to 4th.

So do we have any BG3 experts that can let me into the secret?

Oh and the first person to say 'play better' will get a stern ft:

[nagamitsu]

Downshifting is neccesary for the most part. You want to keep your rpm's high, near redline. once your rpm's start falling fast its all over. Mind you I havent played battle gear 3. I'm just saying in general for drift racers.