Ideas
Noticed same problem, in career mode or with equal perforamnce turned on, i'm 2-3 seconds on average quicker than my friend, my tech level is at 850, meanwhile my friends is at 650, hes much faster than me in invitational lobbies, like 5 seconds a lap faster than me now.
Game is getting boring due to this, the more time i put into it, the less positions i get, considering this is an entire game mode, this needs looking into and fixing asap.
i think its a scaling issue, ie if your above the tech level, you get scaled down too much, meanwhile if your below said tech level, it scales you up too much, thus making slower cars much quicker than faster ones.
the easiest fix is to remove the scaling entirely, there is enough of us above the level of these events now, just stop people joining ones they are below the level for, like any other game.