Okay, we did something to smooth out our path animation with "<path>.autorotate" enabled.
It was like this, create a path that composed of lots and lots of nodes (as required), attach camera and a quad/polygon (make this invisible later) on the same path. Then, during animation play, get the quad to run about 1-3 nodes/control points in advance before the camera animation starts. and set the camera to "lookat" the quad.
the only drawback is... after 1st or 2nd lap, somehow the quad is behind the camera therefore, going backwards. A coding problem from our end, I'm sure.
anyway... hope this helps anyone who's working out with path animation.
Regards,
Iwan