Hey Brian. I am very new to RCs still so I can't say for sure if your set-up will prematurely wear out your brakes or clutch but you can have it set to where you don't need the brakes to keep the car from moving. I have both my RCs set up to where they will idle fine but not take off on me even without applying the brakes. If I had to guess I have the idle opening at maybe 1mm.

Again, that is just how I have my cars set up based from all the help I have gotten from the guys here and from reading the tuning/repair thread. I am sure someone with more experience than me will come along and give you some advice as well, and if I am wrong I apologize. Just trying to help by telling my set up.