Anyway, how the heck do you guys get such good times?

They cheat, duh.

Anyway, how the heck do you guys get such good times?

In no particular order, here are some things I've found useful, that I think maybe not everyone has picked up:

Once you get a helmet that gives you pitch control for your sparrow, dump some motes into it and USE that perk! You get a significant speed boost while pitching down in a fall. Any time you go over even a small jump, pitch forward. Note that on some taller jumps, you can damage yourself or cause a "bounce" if you pitch down too much and hit the bottom hard. After you practice for a while, you'll learn which jumps that happens on, and just pull up a little before touching down. Especially use this right after the portal on Venus. I pass a ton of people during that fall because they're not pitching down.

Use a trick sparrow, and ALWAYS try for tricks on jumps. It really helps keep your fuel gauge full so that you can dodge more often. This is the real reason the SRL sparrows do well - if it were just a straight-line speed contest, Timebreaker would monster everything.

Speaking of which, DODGE. Especially when there's a gate right at the start of a turn. Use a line that would normally cause you to miss the gate slightly toward the outside edge, and dodge toward the apex of the turn right as you pass through the gate. This helps shoot you through the apex at the highest possible speed, without losing momentum from turning.

Hit gates whenever possible. Don't be afraid to use your dodge to line up. Gates can make a huge difference.

At the fans on Mars, just aim for a line going straight through all the gates. Focus your eyes on that line and the gates, and just stay aware of the blades, but don't really THINK about a plan for them until you're right there. Then either dodge them (making sure to immediately dodge the other way and get back on your line with the gates), or if you don't have fuel, just brake briefly. Braking is not as good as dodging, but much better than hitting the blade.

As far as shortcuts, they probably do give you slightly faster times, but I personally never use them. I just don't like that feeling of slowing down (from missing the gates). But you're probably better off doing them, if you make the effort to hit every last gate you can before going in.

One of the info popups at the beginning of a race claims that LB is brake for one of the sparrow classes. It isn't.

Because it was faster than mine, and some random joe had faster times than me. After a few replies, I don't feel so bad :)

My brother-in-law/doubles partner is putting up (4:05.002) on Venus...

There's a named taken knight at the first portal that you can kill, suicide, and re-kill to get that portion of the quest done quickly. Each kill is worth 6%.

(Also, not sure if it has to be the daily, but that's when I did it)