this has worked for me several times,
first don't get a car with hydraulics, get a tahoma or a blade, take it over to the mod shop & but nitrious & better rims on it, do the reduced traffic cheat & start the race, weave between the cars & get to the front as soon as you can (before the first checkpoint), once your ahead of all of the cars, hit the nitrous & floor it, the nitrous should last the duration of the first straightaway, hand brake around the corner & put it to the floor, if your driving skill is high enough the nitrous should be recharged before you have to turn, make your way through the turns & nitrous down the pier...
this is for PS2 so it might not work for the PC version