I beat the race on the first go .. where do you seem to lose it?

All I did was Cruise through the loops, hugging them on the inside. The only time I fell behind was 2 rings before the weapons platforms start shooting at you, but I gained my ground right back.

Where specifically are you having difficulty?

If you are not using a Fighter to race in, it's harder.

IF you're working on storyline missions, might as well get a fighter for awhile. If you wanna trade, take a long time off from the storyline to explore and trade in a freighter to make up enough money to switch back to a fighter with top weapons. As for the race, don't worry about the person you're racing, if you have cruise on in a reasonable amount of time, he won't get any farther away from you, just concentrate on making it through the rings, near the end he bumps into a ring or something and you fly right past him. Its a GUARANTEED win.

Boy you must really suck. I won the dam race using the stupid Bretonia Freighter just use cruise default Shift+W. You be losing at first but you'll come around at the last quarter.