Amazing how in the first race you came in first place, I thought you wouldn't make it.
Honestly I had a similar reaction - while I could tell that the CPU racer wasn't as close as I thought due to the indicator behind me being yellow [if the CPU IS right behind me, it flashes orange if they are still off-screen by that point], I DID barely make it thanks to skipping the buoy at the end, and I know due to the timers at the end suggesting the CPU was just 400 miliseconds away from me.
If you're remembering a game like this that was on the Nintendo 64, then no doubt it had to be Wave Race 64 - more bright colors and smoother controls, but still a challenge with how the buoys get tricky when you go into the Hard, Expert and Reverse championships.
I ended up playing Blue Storm since I had already given plenty of hours on my first revisit to Wave Race 64 in years - as I mentioned near the end, I also had done an all 1st Expert run on that game which took some real patience to pull off without run ending mistakes.
I didn't bring it up when I first talked about Wave Race 64 because I hadn't done that run yet, but it sure was nice to give it the sendoff it deserved - even getting all the RetroAchievements for the game.
I'm not too far away from getting all the achievements for Blue Storm either, but the All 1st Expert run [and the Stormy Championship run which is enabled with a password and you need to play ALL tracks with the worst weather...at least you only need to get 1st overall, but even that can be tough] were the toughest and are already out of the way - only got the stunt mode runs left.
In any case, glad to see that you remembered and shared some fond memories of yours - thanks for reading:]
RE: A taste of Wave Race Blue Storm - Tougher than before but still rewarding to master [ENG/ESP]