Glenn,

I would keep the NiCd's hooked up to the light bulbs until they were almost off then I unplugged the battery very fast.

Have you heard about A123 batteries? They are Li-Ion batteries that you can charge in 15 minutes. I could be wrong on this, but I think you can charges those around 10C's. And they last a lot longer than Lipos. But they are big and heavy for the same capacity.

It sound like you had a lot of fun racing.

Nick