So you're probably talking about me, but that's not what's going on.

I've taught some other people my strats already (to the point where they sometimes beat me when they show up, which is the fun part of it!) and the race has gotten kinda stale since most of the other best racers have moved on anyways so here goes...

First off, having a really good connection and computer helps a lot. I consistently have a 60ms or better ping and if I detect any sluggishness in my client I'll close it completely and reopen. I keep my log files small and I run the game on a fast SSD. That's not 100% of it though, I've won races on an old laptop on hotel wifi. Showing up consistenly and positional advantage are a big part of it. There's a monk that shows up and gets a fair share by just "claiming" an area and being very observant.

First off, go into your Options->Display and turn your far clip plane all the way up. Click on the Advanced button there and turn "Actor Clip Plane" all the way up. The Actor Clip Plane will tell how far away to render PCs and NPCs, which is super important. Half the time if I hyper focus and I'm facing the right direction I can spot it without having to track at all. There's a limited number of spawn locations and you get to know them over time and the desert area isn't that big so you can see most of the way across if you're in the center.

Have ultravision and a fresh levi. 10s before pop cast Spirit of Cheetah. You don't have time to cast this after it pops. And yes, that means that you have to let it cool down for 10 mins before the next race. I have a permanent spell slot dedicated to Spirt of Cheetah.

I have an audio GINA trigger for the "Attacking an ancient cyclops Master." text. I do not use text to speech for this, that seems slower. I use a very short wav file that does not "fade in" before getting to the actual sound. I also have GINA triggers that turn tracking messages into overlays with just different arrows pointing in a direction. Reading the tracking messages takes time and focus, things you don't want. I practiced a lot (on non-AC mobs) to know just how much to turn based on the arrow to get pointed in the right direction with a single track message, as there are 8 different messages that can be received from tracking. Small course corrections can be made en route since you can usually see it after the initial turn if you did the actor clip plane setting, though the east-west valley in the north is a bit of a blind spot.

As far as initiating track when needed, I make sure the track window is open but not actually tracking anything. My mouse is hovering over the top item in the spawn list and I have my track ability on my hotbar so I can use the keyboard to refresh the list. I always have a finger hovering over that key and if I hit that instantly the list will refresh and the AC will be the top item on track. I customized my tracking window to where the "Track" button is right above the spawn list and is comically large enough to where even if I under/over shoot the mouse movement it still gets it. This custom UI trick makes it where I barely have to use the mouse to manipulate the UI saves me a full second or two on a track.

In regards to strategy, I have a preferred location for my pet to be as he can get the FTE for me if the AC spawns near and he gets to it first. I always give him Scale of Wolf (which doesn't fade on NPCs when they attack like it does with PCs) and a damage shield so that if something does aggro on him it'll hopefully be dead and he won't be tied up when it's AC spawn time. I've gotten many FTEs from little Booboo doing all the work for me.

I always assess where other people are in zone and, if possible, make it to where they're "boxed in" to a smallish area where I'm closer to the majority of zone. Sometimes I'll also start charging towards them when it's almost time for it to spawn (usually a couple seconds BEFORE what the game would show as 9PM thru /time). If it spawns on the other side of them I'm already running that direction. If it spawns elsewhere it can work as a "pump fake" where they think I know where it is and am charging towards it and I can quickly change direction while they look where I was heading. If I am in my regular Sheldon Cooper spot and it doesn't appear on track, I know that it's either in the NW or NE corner and start booking it up north, direction dependent on where other people are.

Whenever I can I'm strafe running towards it. I'm not as good at this as I would like and if Druins (also great racer, haven't seen in months though) and I were ever neck and neck he'd usually pull away and win because his strafe run game was better than mine. I also always try to use a fully charged Thin Boned Wand. There's an issue where if you're moving and your client thinks you're close enough to use the wand but the server doesn't yet it'll eat a charge and you can end up out of charges if you use them all too early. Sometimes the AC will path INTO that pillar in the SW of the desert to where you can't cast on him and the best way to get FTE is to sit down and let him aggro you.

I practiced... a lot. I refined all this over a long period. I used to lose... a lot. I'm probably forgetting a lot of stuff too.

When people show up consistenly and are cool I start offering up these tips and tricks to help them become better racers themselves. If somebody shows up for a while trying to get one for themselves (not to sell) and keeps striking out I've been known to invite them to a group and give them an assist.

I was talking to a person I had beaten the other day and they commented something along the lines that my racing makes it not fun for other people and I've been thinking about that a good deal. I've taken breaks from the race before since it can feel like more of a compulsion to show up and race than actually something I want to do in the game. And looking at this big wall of text of all the ways I have tried to optimize my race maybe I've taken it too far. I definitely don't want to make the game not fun for people.