No tire will hold up great on the road, But,
last week at our track the water was off and one guy was running the "Badlands" he was hooked up on the dry dusty track and the tires looked very good at the end of the day, where as my crimefighters were toast. If I was in the market for "basher tires" I'd get Badlands

As far as the chassis brace goes, Loctite should do it

Batteries?
The Ofna True Start box you have really will perform better with a 12 volt gell cell battery.
Charge it over night @ .5 amp and it will last for a few days of racing. I also use mine as a power supply to charge my Tx/Rx batteries.