bird,
the same thing happened to me when i racing a friend at night. let's see...oh i lost the stock tire, and a soft slick. we looked for hours, but could not find the tires...oh well
hogjowlz,
yoo could also shift the batteries forward to give more weight distribution to the front. I went out today with my AWD civic, and i beat my friend using the blue 11 tooth motor. both in accel and top speed. I really suggest using the metal bearings with the AWD. BUT I use tinyrc.com parts, I really recommend it!!
-shiporu