Ok, so I finally went through all the effort of putting my current ace (right) in the emulator thing someone posted, as well as the two other runs that have been decent (left and middle).
I was really surprised that both left and middle beat my current ace substantially, with the left most one by far being the best. is this really because of the power stat or something I'm not understanding.
Sadly, I don't seem to be completing the race with much HP to spare, so my new aces could screw me relative to any debuffers, but not sure if I should try changing up today.