Tail Drift

Learn the location of the boost pads and any obvious blocking elements within the tracks. You will need almost perfect runs to three-star every event.

Buy one plane and stick with it, rather than buying several. By the second set of events, you will need at least a "rank 4" plane to properly compete.

Concentrate on simply finishing each event, rather than winning. You then unlock more and can return to mop up more stars at a later point.