Yes, agreed. I just finished working up an article regarding 5 principles necessary to win at low performance racing. The first principle is all about preparation.

But one of the other (and imop) more important factors is making the proper inflight decisions necessary to fly further or faster.

You know that the presence of a single point difference between 1st and 2nd place amounts to about a single false-thermal attempt, or maybe a few degrees of heading difference along an energy line. Its the "Moffat" principle revisited; namely "win by not loosing".