While watching some of the SRL videos, I noticed that the “speed boost” gates have tall poles on their left or right (see pics below). I initially thought that the pole would indicate the direction of the next turn, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Curious if someone else has an idea about why the poles would switch sides. I suppose it could just be for aesthetic purposes, but if it were somehow functional, that’d be cool.

Well they already mentioned that if you hit the gate, you speed up, and if you miss it you slow down, maybe there is a heavier slow penalty if you miss to the side that the big pole is on?

My guess is that it's purely aesthetic. They probably liked the look of the gate with only one light pole, but then when they built the map they didn't intentionally put it on one side or the other. Alternatively, they chose the side that "looked" best each time they placed the gate.

It could be an indicator of which 'pole' is closer to the ideal line to take through the course.

Okay, so the gates actually change size based on your performance! The tall pole is the anchor point, and the gate expands outward from it.

• If you’re in first, the gates are smaller, and if you’re lagging behind, the gates become larger
  
• Hitting gates after missing previous ones makes the next ones a little larger
  
• Hitting lots of gates makes the next ones smaller

It seems to be set up to keep people as grouped together as possible, which makes for fun racing!