Don't worry about going quick and fast. Think about how much more fun it's going to be when you start "going rounds" in elimination. But you need to work really hard on those reaction times or you going to get your lunch handed to you every week.

Consistancy in runs, and getting a good light every time will almost always beat the quicker cars which tend to be inconsistant. At last months West Coast Hot Rod series race at Bakersfield they had some guy in a diesel powered pick-up and he was running 19 second ET's and ran right on his dial-in lap after lap.