Stuck on HD campaign

[dreadofmondays]

What is up with Meltdown? D:

As a novice, I'm going through the campaign trying to get a logically progressing difficulty curve, but Dropzone features mainly Venom and Flash events and Meltdown suddenly jumps straight to Phantom, and more phantom. I'm not used to playing on this speed. D: I died three times on VK without ever being hit by a weapon.
I will admit it's a good challenge to actually win, but the transition is more than a little jarring.

tl;dr: me having a whinge.
Does anyone have tips on handling the level up? o-o

[Ragsus Maxima]

Keep practising on Racebox; it's the only way to improve. I also had that problem when I faced the Phantom races for the first time, and winning the Meltdown tournament was tough for me then. But now look at me! :D

But let's focus on the topic. First of all, memorize the tracks which you're having the most difficulties and keep playing on them in Speed lap, although I suggest you to do it in all the tracks. Of course, use the craft you like the most.

Once you have the hang of them, try to do Single races at those tracks on the AI difficulty which you're the most confortable, and once you're being consistent, increase the difficulty.

Oh, and I almost forgot; Hellfire WZ did a great set of tutorials (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL291994E3331211F5&feature=plcp) of all the tracks of the game done at Phantom class, so I highly recommend you to take a look at them.

Don't forget that the perseverance is the key of the success in this game.
Keep it up and don't give up! If you keep practising, you'll be amazed of the results. :)

[blackwiggle]

You have to master using the airbrakes, there is no short cut.
Once you can beat the skilled AI at Rapier speed on ALL tracks, then and only then should you consider going into the menu options and changing the sensitivity of the air brakes.
Pointless changing from default setting until you can do the above.
A low % actually means a higher sensitivity in HD [less force needed to activate]