After a bit of theory-crafting and a lot of routing, I managed to find a way to get the 2nd extra life on the Japanese version of Top Gun at 150,000 points. It made the run a lot harder than the previous WR and I got the 2nd extra life on the final boss, but with that I could skip the final landing and managed to save 36s over the previous world record!

I'd guess there's another 5+ seconds to save by managing speed better so you end up closer to 600 at landing and optimizing the boss fights a little better. I'm happy with it for now though