I'm not sure of your problem but we have 10 guys running the Castle setups offroad at are track and they all can pull wheelies at will and have way more power than we need. Something is not setup right, or just not working correctly for whatever reason. Your Traxxas should be ripping the tires from first hit of the throttle. With just the standard setting on the speedo it would have more power than you could hook up to the ground.

The newest firmware is as smooth as anything I used in 25 years of racing. My brushed stuff isn't any smoother than the newest brushless from Castle.