Getting murdered in top split

Green badge, high Bronze3 DR (almost silver), Platinum2 SR.

Whenever I enter a Bronze daily race, I'm often getting put into the top spit - where I'm miles off the pace, struggle to maintain where the game is ranking me, and lose DR.

Weirdly in Silver daily races last week at LeMans I was always in the lower half of splits (4 of 7 e.g).

Is there a different method for deciding splits between Bronze and Silver daily's?

Is bronze just off limits for me and I have to do Silver or Gold daily's to stand a chance of gaining DR?

All advice welcome.