Am I supposed to be using the little 4 circle mounting plate with my carb?
 

I'm using an edelbrock performer dual plane and the manifold came with a little spacer plate with 4 circles in it and a gasket to match. I just swept it aside and bolted the carb with a dual oval gasket directly to the manifold. Should I be using this plate for any reason?

Sometimes carb spacers help, sometimes not, try it and see what performs better.