dude, join the club. i go through a set every race day too and i have the 8.5. someone mentioned to have the mesh a little more loose, maybe two sheets of paper and they have been running good so far . i have the hyper st too and it does not have the same problem. i say run one set for the qualifiers and change out bearings before the mains and prey they make it that long. i did have a set last me 1 straight gallon one day of practice. i installed a new set and ran through a full gallon of gen2 before they exploded, all i had was the outside casing and inside and lots of tini tiny balls rolling around in the chassis.