Now you mention it, I do vaguely recall something about a different BOP for ovals. It would certainly go some way to explain the speed of your Beetle. I fully expected the lead to be between myself and Phil (and anyone else that managed to keep the tow) as the Toyota and Nissan both have great top speeds while you would be nowhere.
It's a shame you've had a couple of bad races as it's fun racing you though in your absence Mike has been keeping me company and it was a good race for the lead. The Supra is a pig to get off the line and left me chasing Mike for the lead and, while I could easily follow and I knew my ultimate pace was faster, around Sardegna is was tricky to find somewhere to pass and I only did when Mike made a mistake. A mistake from me almost let Mike back in it too but luckily for me it was as the hairpin so didn't leave any room for Mike to pass and ending up costing him time too. I then banged in the fastest lap of the race to open the gap but damn it if wasn't a close run thing for most of the race. I have to say, I don't like Mike having this ideas of grandeur of finishing higher than third, it's unnatural 😄
Regarding your times though Kiwi, did you enable BoP? The amount of times I've tested in time trial and been happy with my times to only realise I failed to enable BoP. Saying that though, there is some weird thing about different sessions or game modes giving different grip (or something else) as times can vary so much. I think it was the Gr2 race at Alsace last season, practising with Phil the night before and going great. But come practise before the race, I couldn't get within 2 seconds of my times of the night before. Qualifying starts and instantly match my practise times from the night before again.