I've experienced the same issue, I've also raced a couple of players that as soon as you get into the race with them your engine is already red and no way to do no kind of perfect launch, either by drop launching or timing the lights even...my system is also crashing mid race which has kept me away from entertaining much…
I agree with most of the things you said....specially when we spend lots of money on this game and the servers are down during an event....their solution is to appease everyone witha few gems so even people that are not trying to compete get compensated the same as those who are...I understand is a smart business decision…