Firstly thanks to Tiziano for researching this initially, I'm just picking up the theory and making a strat from it!

If a CPU hits an item (can be beaker or nitro) anywhere on the barrel section the placement tracker plays up and you end up going to 2nd, 3rd etc. In some cases this doesn't revert back and you permanently stay in 2nd.

The theory has something to do with CPU players changing paths to avoid collisions which for some reason changes their placement and it doesn't correct. I purposely drop on the right side as there are two overlapping paths: https://media.discordapp.net/attachme...

You can drop on the left side although I'm not sure if the placement will be permanent, maybe a safer tech to manip one mask item in the spiral

So what's the use? Well in a speedrun the CPU will rubber band if they are in the lead, and when you're in 2nd place you can pick up mask items. It might be risky and needs testing how feasible it is to win the race from here (if at all possible, I didn't test). Maybe a few seconds saved with this if you can still win the race and get lucky with mask drops.