You would be better of dischargeing with the old school discharge bulbs system. 10- 1156 bulbs soldered together with battery plug of your choice. Plug them into your batteries and disconnect once the lights dim, but not completely go out. If you go too low on your discharge, you can damage the cells.
As for chargers, I would recommend you spend the money on a high quality multi type charger like the Racers Edge Sure charge 2000. Not the cheapest charger, but it is awesome! It has output plugs of all types. Charge and discharge modes as well as lipo and includes its own power supply, the main reason I didn't buy the Duratrax Ice. You can find it for less on ebay, but here is the link; http://www.racers-edge.com/ProductDe...Code=rcesc2000
As for using your batteries for club racing, they will work just fine for starters. I used to get cordless drill motor batteries from work that wouldn't hold a charge. Out of the eight cells, one would be fried. Break the cells out of the case and check to make sure each had 1.2v. Then solder them together like the better cells. They weren't the best, but they got me through and I learned to drive better because of the slower cells.

The main thing to remember is not to over think your hobby, but to enjoy it. HAVE FUN with what you can afford, meet new people and learn.