IMO, I think it was a function of the three previous courses having dumb starts where the front row were given a free 30 seconds. People got sick of it and decided to do whatever necessary to get to the front. Such as lining up 30 minutes beforehand and taking crazy lines where the start was a bit more open.

One of my observations of racing in the Cross cup last year was how poorly put together most of the courses were. There's not a lot of material to work with in Chicago, but a bit more thought would go a long way. Carpentersville last year stood out as very well designed and made great use of limited features.