RE: need help on future purchace
If you're going to race then you don't want a dune runner...bit on the heavy side.
I don't know where you heard they don't race 5b's cos 90% of races in USA seem to be for 2wd 5b/5t , probably because they've been the biggest seller to date...4wd is slowly gaining a foothold though and i imagine will be the biggest class in the not too distant future.
hard to believe that there are, ar present, only really 3 main choices for 4wd track machines, IMO they are FG, nutech and MCD...not really much else out there that'd be competetive unless you want to spend about 3k on a lauterbacher 4wd megacross[X(]...
the 2010 hurrax pyrad RS truggy is looking promising as another higher end contender (buggy is the crypton) , we'll see how that pans out after a couple more of us get our hands on them to try.