RE: not a gripe, just curious...
Doug -
I believe it was posted previously in this thread, but the rules state that a minimum of 4 stages need to be run.
What concerns me is that the perceived passing problem exists not at the front of the pack, but rather at the back. And given the limited number of events many lower seed drivers have participated in, the speed factor will probably not be accurate. In fact, I would postulate that the law of large numbers plays a great role in many of the lower seeded drivers' high speed ratings.
Now, another interesting factor here is that the speed rating does not take into account head to head competition, but rather event competition. This is, perhaps, why some drivers have moved up or down the list compared to people we would call "fast".
Hopefully, as we progress through the season, these numbers will be adjusted. It would be great if there was a start order chart that was more universal, taking into account both speed factor and, perhaps, more qualitative aspects that a steward uses. With a global list/order, we could still have consistency across events.