That's all the opportunity Yamato needs. As soon as those shields sputter out, Yamato darts through the space where the shields were. There's a visible shower of sparks as some of the spikes from the other ship scrape over the top of his hull and the glass of the cockpit, but no serious damage other than some scored cladding and a long scratch along the cockpit.

He keeps a mental tally in his head of where he is in the race, as he keeps darting through obstacles: Eighth place, now seventh place, and with the next ship to overtake just a little ways ahead.