John
Lanes were assigned for the 4 scheduled time shots so you would get one run in each lane. Because it rained and they only got two hits, each driver was given one on the race pair, and one on the non race pair. So going into first round it was certainly possible that you would be running in a lane for the first time (if you made a time run in lane 3, and you were in lane 4 first round) but that's no different than if you had only one time run because of weather and had to go into eliminations. Now, if you come up early when called you would be able to pull into the left lane if that's where you wanted to race, but if you hang back you may have to run the other lane. But that is exactly the way it works at every race.
The vast majority of drivers I spoke to thought it was pretty cool to be a part of it.
Alan