I was wondering the benefits of charging a LiPo battery at higher than the recommended 1C rate (ROAR rules only allow 1C rates, but local races anyhting goes). Put aside all safety stuff and life of a battery and such. What is the benefit of charging at a higher rate?

Heare are some of the reason I have heard the higher rate will provide more:
1) punch
2) more volts
3) last longer
4) charge faster <-- this I believe.

Is there any truth to any of the above or is there something else? If it is only the rate a battery charges, then if you have plenty of batteries why damage a $50-150+ battery?

Mainly #4, it charges faster. It definitely does not make batteries last longer, and you can get a little more punch for the first part of the pack when it is charged at a higher rate.

Right, but more than likely, even ONE bump against a barrier or other silly mistake in a race will make that miniscule extra performance meaningless. Which is why I stick fairly closely to 1C(I might do 1.5C if I need to cut down the charge time), I KNOW I'm not a good enough driver to take advantage of that, so for me it's just a waste of a good battery to push it that much....