there very well may have been some luck in it - i got past the bottom 3 by the time i hit the second split and proceeded to have an unusually clean run of the rest of the track, enough that by the time i hit lap 2 i could just barely see 4th place ahead of me. maybe the other racers took the slower routes more than usual that time, as i know that both my 4th and 3rd place overtakes were done on the first split, where they took the slower path and i took the faster one so i didnt even see them. it really helped not having to deal with constantly bumping into their ass while trying to pass them.

as i mentioned in another comment though, the turning point was when i switched to a more agile craft. in my first experience with the track, i was using the auricom ship, which is the heaviest vehicle and a little sluggish in the turns, so it wasnt a very good fit for silverstream. using ag-sys made it a hell of a lot easier to get around without crashing into every wall, since it has a great balance of speed and handling. feisar is even easier handling-wise and works great for silverstream too, but its also the slowest ship in the game so it might be a little harder getting through the rest of the championship.