Besides ghosts, Pans will be your primary source of frustration as invisibility isn't common when racing in 1st place.
Let's answer two pan questions:
- Does mashing matter?
- What's the Yuna strat?
Here's a test done with save-states and TAS to compare all available options as closely as possible.
The Yuna strat consists of intentionally tripping - landing while doing a trick - and be hit with the pan during the rolling animation.
However, the timing is very tight.
Tripping and rolling dodges some projectiles, but it's far better trying to jump over projectiles than rolling.
In summary, during race, be aware of where you would end up if you tripped right away and keep an eye on the distance between you and 2nd place. One shouldn't commit to the Yuna strat before you're absolutely sure it's worth it - even if you do it correctly, the time earned isn't very much and you might end up rolling off the map or worse.
Finally, it's possible to Yuna, get hit by a pan, and then hit a wall, skipping the rest of the rolling animation. If you somehow can time it such that you spend as little time as possible rolling, you'll replace the entire pan animation with a bonk. This is extremely difficult, and you should just be aware that it might happen. This would earn you around 1 second, totalling at saving you around 2 full seconds per pan.
