Question(s) about image write times

I have a canon 50d and i went out two nights ago to try my hand at some star trail photography. One issue I noticed is that every shot (30 second exposure) took about 30 seconds a piece to write, so I know I'll have gaps, I've yet to stack the images to see if they'll actually show or not.
My question is this:
Is there any way for me to increase the write times on my camera? From what I read it seems most folks are able to do 30 second exposures without any/much delay time.
Is my card speed too slow?
Or is it the camera itself?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Custom Function 2, Number 1 is Long Exposure noise reduction. Turn this off for doing star trails.
Search this section of the forum for information on "Dark frames". With this function on, the camera takes a dark frame after every shot but you can do them yourself at a more convenient time.

I've also got the shoot without card turned on too and a 60mb/s card. Only takes less than 1 second between any length of shot. No problems so far, taken over 2000 with no gaps.

Just don't forget to put a card in! >.<

Flacid Monkey wrote in post #15676492
Just don't forget to put a card in! >.<

One of the first things I do to a new camera is to tell it not to try and shoot if there's no card present.

hollis_f wrote in post #15678442
One of the first things I do to a new camera is to tell it not to try and shoot if there's no card present.

It is sound advice, don't get me wrong and I did enable it the day I got it, but I have managed to decrease the buffer required to less than a second on long exposures using a faster card, custom noise function and the shoot without card which is perfect for old cameras like mine shooting star trails for timelapse.

I always have a card in, it's only when you either forget or fill it up you'll miss those shots and it's highly likely it will happen to me one day but willing to risk it purely because I don't get those blobby trails.

Flacid Monkey wrote in post #15676492
I've also got the shoot without card turned on

Why would this option decrease write times?