I did my rookie race last weekend and I found my prep-work helped as i used all my tools, I had parts to fix my one bad wreck, but I lacked on tires too. I had foam but they did not let electrics run with foams, not sure why.
- get some tire goo to get some extra grip.
-put your car on a setup board if you can
-I got this ling passed to me from Revs, bet I have ever seen, read it -
http://users.pandora.be/elvo/
I found that that I did well doing some practice on my main batts, then ran some ok ones in the first few races, then my practice for the last race and for the main.
bring a chair and a cooler as it lasted a LOT longer than I though so I was glad I had extra food and drinks.