Ballracer: a great little game

I like that game Ballracer, and even though you guys seem to beat me at it more times than naught, I still think it's great fun!
Just for your information, I generally play retro games and seldom if ever give flash games a look in, but this game really caught my eye.

Having said that, I noticed a couple of unusual things about it:

1} Other players' sprites seem to jump ahead on the track occasionally, seemingly giving them an unfair boost. Is this just the program catching up to the gameplay that makes it look that way?
2} I noticed some players' sprites are very fancy with a picture of a creature inside the ball, and also having 'trailers' like balloons following them around the track, attached by strings?
What is that, and how do I get mine?

Anyhow, that's about all I have to say other than it's a really fun game I recommend you try yourselves.
Good gaming Everyone!