You can edit the 2 second pause. It's required for the first track, but all subsequent you can shut it off.
That's really screwy about the mp3 not allowing disk at once. I'd have thought it could be converting the next track while it's burning one. But at 16x, you'd have to have a smoking processor. You might see if it lets you at 8x, or 4x.
Any good audio editor will convert mp3 to wav. Or you can check shareware/freeware at <A HREF="http://www.download.com" target="_new">http://www.download.com</A>.
Rich is the nation that has many war heroes. Long since forgotten...