Just a quick note.. the race start/lag bug is gone with the latest test patch (U20). I tried it quite a few times online last night, and the difference is massive. The next official patch will see the start lag problem off for good.

I just did 1 race myself to see what you where talking about, you're quite right, the lag seems to be gone, YAY!

I still got taken out at the start mind, some disagreement over whether being dead parallel is significant overlap and justifies giving room, but other than that starts are much better

@schnee; that time period is BEFORE the grid is reset, and after enough votes are completed for a restart

for example..
enough people vote, and it says Race starts in blah time, a pop up comes up and says 'confirm next race' so you hit yes (or no if you aren't going to), and then once the time period is up, the grid is set up, players that selected no or nothing at all are booted to spectator

ok, then i missunderstood you.
Although i like the longer period standing on the grid preparing "myself" for the race. Maybe this is senseless on ordinary 5 laps puplic sprintracing, but in league races going over more than just a couple of laps. Maybe we ll get some option for the server admins so anyone can do as he/she likes.