I dont think only by emulators you get that advantage, I say cause I once participate on a Gran Turismo 4 Time Trial tournament, and it was proved that in the PAL game, you would get lower time reaching the same spot. Of course, clock time on Racing game its not the same as here, na Atari game.
But, yes, at least on emulation participant we should set to only use the NTSC version. Unless if anyone shows that the game is faster on PC than the original hardware.
Sadly I never played this game on my real Atari, and I 'felt' this game super fast.