After driving Stepping Stones a bit, I have a feeling the quickest way through the stepping stone part is getting a small hit from the 2nd wall but avoiding the hole, much like in Little Ramp.

As far as I know, Little Ramp and Stepping Stones are the only tracks where you get a boost from driving to wall. On both tracks, this reduces air time and makes the segment faster.

In Little Ramp, you need to get a small nudge to slow down just enough to get a better landing after the final jump - getting a hole there means you lost time.

In Stepping Stones, the stepping stone part requires a bit bigger wall touch to be quick. I'm not entirely sure getting a hole is the quickest way though, would need to experiment a bit.

If Stepping Stones can be driven as quickly without taking a hole, then the question is trivial: holes will not make you faster.

But even if it is quicker to go through a wall / get a hole, I'm still leaning towards allowing Stepping Stones track records to be set when taking a hole. It does allow for more risky ways to attack the stepping stones part, and driver is punished for slightest failure trying to do that.

On the other tracks, no wall hits will help getting a quick lap. So getting a hole to be quick is exclusive to Stepping Stones, if even that.

I'd allow record times set when taking a hole.

I would suggest the following rule for race times:

No reverse before crossing start line.

Reversing before crossing the line gives the driver a big advantage for 1st lap time and thus for race time, because the timer starts when crossing start line.

Opponent was Hot Rod or Big Ed, can't remember which one.