How is that new San Diego indoor track? I'm going to run mine in Hemet with a 540 setup too. Never heard of someone cutting off teeth to free up resistance in a belt. Cutting in half sure, but that was to reduce rotating mass as much as it was to reduce friction. Sadly you usually had to increase tension to reduce belt slip since you were also reducing friction thus traction of the belt on the pullies. Then again, neither did any of the fast guys I raced with. Probably would have if they did. LOL