If you have speed, you can throttle down.

In fact, slowing down, or changng speeds at the right time is a great defensive tactic, though there are lots of us who know how to counter it. But even so, it's one more thing to worry about, so it's worth doing.

I find it's nice to be able to gain on someone by a little as you cross the box. A lot of guys fly "defense" by basically making long, striaght runs accross the box, with some kind of turn around at the end. If you are much slower, you get one shot at the streamer at each turn around. If the guy you're chasing is any good, you won't get quality chances then either, since he will be able to use his speed to keep you out of position, even on the turns.

However, if you are just a hair slower, it doesn't matter as much, you can make up the speed by taking a good angle here and there.

As mentioned above though, going too fast is a bad thing too. Even if you can fly the plane around at warp3, it doesn't mean you can fight it at that speed. Just last weekend, I was a bit tired and out of practice with my newest B class ship, and it was really cranking with a new engine setup. Well, it was faster than I expected, and I wound up putting it aside and flying slower planes and flying a lot better and scoring higer that way. (I'll be more ready for the faster plane for the next contest of course. But sometimes it pays to slow down a bit).