Uploaded August 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Old idea, but finally made it work. Thanks to Weatherton for proving it was possible in 150cc (youtu.be/_Gizu_QgJ3c) and showing me that you don't have to jump into the fence to get a large bounce off it. Also thanks to micro500 for helping us understand what was needed with 3D models of the course.

Exact time = 2.9158
Full race + input: youtu.be/oiYtURziEXM

With this confirmed possible, 11/16 courses have had at least one new time trials shortcut in under 1 year (August 4, 2020-August 3, 2021). That's the same number of courses that had shortcuts found in the first 20 years after MK64's release. There are 3 courses which have no time trials shortcuts: Moo Moo Farm, Koopa Troopa Beach, and Banshee Boardwalk. Besides these 3, the only other 2 courses which have not had a new shortcut in the past year are Choco Mountain (which had its new shortcuts, including the "Weathertenko," discovered in 2014), and DK's Jungle Parkway (the only course to have its original shortcuts still optimal). Wario Stadium 3lap also hasn't had any new shortcuts since the 90s, but the fast lap there does have a new strategy so I think that counts. Also, while Yoshi Valley fast lap did have a new strategy found in the past year (youtu.be/Db4yj5ozTFc), that only saved 2 frames and is arguably not even a new shortcut at all, so it's nice to have something here that is undeniably a new shortcut. This one will also save time on the 3lap, which is something the previous discovery on Yoshi Valley didn't do.

So why did this take so long to be performed? In order to complete a lap, you MUST cross from behind the finish line to in front of it in some way (the finish line is an infinite vertical plane that passes through the visible finish line). However, you don't always gain/lose a lap when you cross this, otherwise you could complete laps when passing the finish line halfway around the track. There are a few different conditions that must be met for the finish line to be active, but the important one here is that you must be within 1000 units from the center of the road at the finish line. (You can imagine a sphere with radius 1000 centered on the middle of the road at the finish line, and the finish line is active only if you are in that sphere.) This sphere gets quite close to the far left path of the track (the wall bounced off here), but there is a small gap between the wall and the sphere. This is why the normal 3lap lapskip works - you hit the wall in front of the finish line, then tumble left so you land behind the finish line (which causes you to cross the line forwards as you get placed down, which completes a lap) but since you crossed backwards across the line close to the wall, you are outside of the sphere so the finish line is inactive and you don't lose a lap. This results in a lapskip since the finish line is active when you cross it forwards but not when you cross it backwards. But in the usual 3lap lapskip you must fall all the way to the bottom and get rescued by lakitu before finishing the lap. So if you could cross backwards across the line while outside of the sphere (just like in the 3lap), but then cross the line forwards while still in the air, it would be much faster. Unfortunately, as seen in the 3lap, hitting the wall near the finish line launches you left, so you cannot cross the finish line forwards in the air after hitting the wall. However, slightly right of the place you hit in the 3lap is a part of the wall that knocks you to the right after you hit it, which is the direction you need to cross the finish line midair. The problem is that before hitting the wall you must cross the finish line backwards (outside of the sphere), but the part of the wall that knocks you right is almost entirely in front of the finish line. Luckily there is a tiny part near the top that is both behind the finish line and knocks you right, which is what we need. However, that part of the wall is just barely behind the finish line, so after hitting it you usually cross the finish line forwards before re-entering the 1000-unit sphere, so the finish line is still inactive and you don't complete a lap midair. As you get closer to the top of the wall, the tiny section you must hit gets a little wider, allowing you to hit the wall a bit further behind the finish line, which lets you reactivate the finish line before crossing it. The problem here is that to hit the wall so close to the top, you need a LARGE bounce and high speed to cross the canyon quickly (this is why this SC is slightly easier in 150cc). With ideas from Weatherton on how to get the best speed/height possible and a lot of tiny adjustments, I crossed the finish line midair only 999.9978 units from center of the sphere. If I had been .003 units farther away, the finish line would have been inactive so no lapskip. Unless a consistent way to get more speed is found, this is extremely precise in time trials (worse than KD?) and will not be done RTA.