here's a few things to help


tyres:
purple front, pink rear, most brands work well - jaco, trc (trinity), parma, yokomo (though they have different ratings)

try fx2, or tyre tweak for additive, or even sunscreen, cover the whole rear tyre, and the inside half of the front tyres.
if using tweak, massage it into the tyres as much as you can, make sure you wipe off any excess moisture before going out.

speed 8 or 12 bodyshell works well most of the time, try a yokomo ms-1 if you can get your hands on it, they're not the fastest but heaps of downforce & fairly easy to drive

9x2 is a great motor if you've got one, usually go for double winds rather than singles, as atomix said try a 19t if you want to get some lower speed practice in with it.

9x2 @ 18deg timing, ~38mm rollout for a medium sized track should work out ok. try softer springs than what you would with a touring car, if you're using a V2 motor drop back to the old med-hard or hard springs (not the MR ones)

michael lufaso (ae team driver) has a fantastic webpage with heaps of good setup tips on it - located @ http://home.sc.rr.com/mlufaso/rc/12l4/index.html

thats all i can think of right now