I came from KTM land to Beta. No regrets. Still like KTM but the Beta is just as good in many respects and better in others. Not sure how it compares to Gas Gas.
The Race engine has a higher compression head, a smaller exhaust port and a different ignition from what I understand. I just put an S3 high compression head on mine to help out with our high elevation here. It wakes up the bottom end nicely (not that the bottom end was bad) and gets rid of the gapiness in the tranny when riding at 9K' ASL.
Here is my thread on that mod
http://www.betarider.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=350I find the map switch makes a significant difference compared to KTM. I find that on the aggressive map it really spins up into the upper range quicker. There is definitely a difference. Now with the head mod it is an auto wheelie machine on the aggressive mode. When I am doing technical trail riding and my rear wheel is breaking loose it is because I forgot to switch back to normal map. Beta USA tells me that the Race edition ignition is better than the standard. I would assume that that will be the new standard ignition on the 2015's.
Here is a thread on the map switch. On page two it shows what I did for a map switch
http://www.betarider.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=43