I heavily suggest using a fuel filter. All that stuff that gets in there, be happy it gets caught in there and not ran though the engine. You'd be surprised what gets into the tank. Then again, I am always running offroad... so I'll take that one extra piece of security.

Fuel filter maintenance is one of those things that is ignored just as much as shock maintenance, differential maintenance and so on. Lets face it, no one pushes or notes to pay attention to it. I haven't seen anything about fuel filters in the past year from :xtreme rc cars or r/c car magazine. And they say that they are dyin for something to write about...

I've seen some weird things in the filter, grass being one of them... but to each their own, thats what makes the hobby fun.