Great stuff.
One way to frame what you are doing is to consider your weekly races "Practice Races". The veteran racers at DLV called them that and, at first, I didn't understand. I was like, "They are keeping score and logging points. These are real races!".
Actually, the only "real" races are big events that award medals, jerseys, and/or cash like Big events, Velodrome Championships, Regional Championships, Nationals, etc...
If you think of them as practice races, it helps you relax some and experiment more and not get down if you don't do well...because it's just practice
edit:
Refer to them how you want (races or whatever), just maybe mentally think of them as practice.
Often a lot of new racers will be frustrated because they didn't do well one night and whatnot. They soon learn that how well you do is dependant on a lot of factors and you and your body are just part of the equation. Who shows up that night is probably the #1 factor in how well you do.
Time trials are a good objective way to measure progress and ability. Elapsed time is the same for everyone and the stopwatch does't lie
(Of course, then there is the skill of the person manning the stopwatch (and it
is a skill)...but that's another story, hahaha)