Since I own an actual racer I'd always quite fancied putting it through its paces and trying some Air racing but after reading this thread I'm not so sure!
Looking back through the aircrafts engine logbook from the late 80's when it used to race in anger makes interesting reading however, multiple entries such as "15mins at 3700rpm" on an 0-200 certainly made me raise my eyebrows! One of the last entries was "10mins at 3900rpm", shortly after it spat a piston through the casing during a display resulting in a forced landing and muchos damage!
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...pdf_500336.pdf
Engine Zero timed and only has 150hrs on it now, thankfully I'm somewhat less demanding on the RPMs!