Archibald said:
Found another crit race on the weekend to try it out at...
Only had a small number in my grade/cat. Went wide on the turn, left it a little later than the others, shifted my weight onto the outside pedal, lent the bike and was able to take the corner a little sharper than the others. This meant I was coming out of the corner just before them and was pedalling again that bit sooner to get back up to speed. Noticed the others out of the saddle to come back up to me. So far so good.
We got caught by the top grade/cat, so wound it up in an attempt to hang with them. All good to sit in on the back til the first hairpin. Took the same strategy as above, but damn, they were pedalling sooner in the turn than me, although they took pretty much the same line… was 3 lengths off the back just like that! Thankfully the rest of my grade/cat were a touch further behind and out of the saddle again to come up to me. Was good to see how these guys did it.
When the next grade/cat caught us, I could stay with them on the two turns. Unfortunately, our grade/cat finish came up before I thought it was, so got caught out when the only other guy in my grade/cat who had also stayed on took off for the line.

Nearly had him, but needed maybe another 50-100m…
Sounds to me like you're gonna be coming back here and telling us how to do it soon! Good on ya. Like others said above - and you're doin' it - watch the better guys - follow them.
Push down on the outside leg, yeah, light countersteer - essential. You MIGHT benefit from trying to constantly push the countersteering lightly, as many of us back off instinctively due to fear - it can be hard to keep it down.
I'll try to find that link later this week. Meanwhile look on youtube for vids of Cancellara downhill cornering - yes, I know it's is downhill, but you can watch the body language better, and he is good. Canc uses both methods - look up how Phinney (not Taylor, his dad) recommends to downhill - it's online somewhere. He says push in with the topside leg - push the countersteer - push the bike down, and weight shift up and in - what I've called leaning out - because your body language is moving up and "out" of the line of the turn. Leaning in is weight on outside leg, drop knee, shift weight down and into the line of the curve - like a moto GP racer. It doesn't take much - this is very subtle on a bicycle, unlike a motoGP rider.
I think the latter is more appropriate to a crit corner. As for the apex diagrams - nice! I think, though, that on a bike you would do something a little different - staying wide later, and then doing something closer to the "early apex" - as you scrub speed in the turn (careful now, keep your line), the radius gets sharper and you end up more like the track of the late apex.
But, on a bike, once you've followed those better riders, I think you will find that the apex positioning matters less than getting it more or less right, and getting the power back on sooner.
As for burning matches - goal is least effort possible. If you did that in a race by coasting the whole time and only going full gas 4 times, well fine. But you'll only have a few sessions at full gas - I've heard 3-4 - before performance suffers even with some recovery. On the other hand, too much constant effort can also leave you with nothing in the legs to burn at the end. Find the middle path, grasshopper.
On a workout ride - going full gas out of corners for practice IS intervals, of a sort. If you haven't already, read up on types of interval training.
Next? Blow 'em away!
Edit - corrected "Steida" to Phinney. Ooops.