The ETS-X would be fine for racing, especially if you race primarily for fun.

Is 9-speed bad? No but I, and others, just think that 8 speed is better. On my 8 speed setup all I'm losing is the 11 tooth cog, a useless one if you ask me. I can't ever think of a time I've spun out my 42X12 high gear on a trail. Perhaps it would be somewhat usefull if you were a masher.

Any and all forks you look at will have an oil dampening system. It is the spring that is either air or coil spring. It used to be that coils were noticably plusher, while this may still be true, the gap has been narrowed a lot. Air sprung forks are obviously much lighter. If you are not concerned with weight a coil sprung fork will still feel nicer. My coil MX Pro is very plush, makes my Sid feel like a rigid! The Marzocchi Marathon S or Fox Vanilla would be good choises.

Hope is UK, all their kit is made there. For rotor size I'd stick with 180mm front and 160 rear. Anything more than that will put too much strain on an XC fork.

King hubs are way overkill, IN MY OPINION. Others love them, but to me they are just way too much money. The Hopes offer 99% of the performance at a fraction of the price. Regarding tubeless, I'd give it a try. The weights of tubeless tires have come down to the point where they are rougly equal to weight of a tubed tire an non-lightweight tube combo (thanks largely to the efforts of Hutchinson and Schwalbe). The benefits less rolling resistance, increased traction and no possibility of pinch flatting. The one downside of UST tubeless is that if you are a weight-weenie the rims are heavy. To get lightish UST rims you have to buy a "factory" wheelset like Crossmax SL which uses a rim that is lighter than the 819. That said, a set of Crossmax SL wheels would look very hot on this bike, but they are quite expensive. You can find good deals on the "old" 2006 models as Mavic has slightly redesigned them for 2007.