Ok, first, as one of the top 3 pole position players ever, they got those scores. But that doesn't matter, everybody is totally entitled to their opinion.
Second. Pole Position is an insanely hard game. If I ask, can someone get the most possible points on the first screen of donkey kong over and over again, the answer is probably yes. You only move a joystick and push a button. It can be copied. The controls of Pole Position are so fine that replicating exactly even the qualifying lap is impossible. Let alone the actual race! Put the car exactly, I mean exactly where it was on the previous attempt while keeping the speed at exactly the same, and finishing with exactly the same time is impossible... Then a few of the cars move randomly throughout the entire game! So a race can't be copied.. you just have to get good, really really good. So asking someone to copy an entire race is completely impossible.
Third. The scoring isn't the same in every game either. As was said, I got times within 1/100 of each other and passed 2 more cars in the slower race.. 67,010 for a time of 214.35 passing 140 cars... but I also got a 66,810, with a time of 215.49 and passed 140 cars. So that is over a second slower and still passed 140 cars! I wish I was their age when they played, they got to play all day every day, heck Mike worked at the arcade. I try and get some playing time a few times a week.. no wonder they got so good!
Keep up the good work Johnny! The game is so perfect any information that can be added to figuring it out is extremely helpful!
Here's a video of my 52.03 2nd lap with cars in a real race. Fastest real race 2nd lap ever on video.
I've only been playing since March of 2019 (this year) and I'm still getting better every time! Mike and Les took over a year to go from 66,710 to the records... I've been playing less than 8 months. Takes time to get good at anything!