[Groudon]

I was reading over the rules and I don't understand the Time Attack rules.
In Balloon Park, you must hit at least one balloon on each lap. (Freestyle)
Could someone explain how you can complete a lap without hitting a balloon?
In Desert Palace, you may not pass over or under the lap marker while moving or facing left.(Freestyle)
Could someone rephrase this?
And exactly why is Endless Mine listed under Freestyle, yet the rules say nothing about this level?

[SadisticMystic]

In Balloon Park, it's possible to pass through the top, and just run along the top for the whole race.  Obviously that earns it a separate division.  The rule needs rewriting, since it's possible to skip both balloons on a "normal" lap, and in fact that's the fastest way.

In Desert Palace, it's possible to do a spindash jump left from a ramp, and go so high that you pass over the lap marker without it decrementing a lap, then pass right to get a lap added, repeating for the whole race.

Endless Mine doesn't have a rule yet because I'm not sure what causes it.  xebra (aka Ghost), a former member that doesn't come here anymore, made a demonstration video doing something with Tails that caused half a lap to be skipped by moving from the foreground into the background out of nowhere.

[Groudon]

Could you tell me how to pass through the top?  And do you have that video of Endless Mine (or know a place with the video)?

[SadisticMystic]

Run left from the starting point, and jump on the left side of the balloon.  You should run up the wall, and around the curve onto the ceiling.  If you can keep your momentum along the ceiling until you get to the loop (and as long as you aren't playing locked-on; it was fixed in S3&K), you'll pass through the ceiling at the loop.

I don't have xebra's Endless Mine demonstration, and I'm not sure he even has it anymore.  It probably has to do with starting flight at a specific frame.

[Groudon]

Thanks.  I tied your Balloon Park single lap time with that.

[yse]

I've still got it, I'll upload it somewhere when I get the chance.