Need For Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed Diary - Part 2 - The Schizophrenic Difficulty

This game's difficulty doesn't make any sense. There are times when I lead an entire lap without any real competition and then there are other laps where I struggle to reach the podium (3rd place or better).

I think it has something to do with scaling difficulty with car upgrades. I should try removing all upgrades and see if I can do any better. 

Or maybe, I am just very bad.

Top racer has an 8 second lead...I can barely reach top 3 spot.