By JACK FARIS

Like a NASCAR 500-mile race, each two-year session of Congress gets off to a fast and furious start. Some hard-chargers will leap to the front of the pack, knowing they have little chance of winning, but unable to resist the temptation to show off for the roaring crowd. Others with ample power will lag just behind the sprinters, content to wait for that moment when the over-ambitious ones fizzle out or tangle with the guardrails.

Round and round Capitol Hill they’ll go. Sometimes it will be bumper-to-bumper competition, other times long, boring stretches with little worth watching. Occasionally, we’ll be treated to spinouts, fender benders and even a few big pile-ups.

Some people scoff at our federal lawmakers for their biennial legislative marathon, failing to understand that behind all that smoke and noise, some important work gets done. Often, it’s not pretty, but it is our democracy, alive and well and in full pursuit of representative government.

American small businesses are gearing up for their own race, according to the latest statistics from NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends. In the most recent survey, those expecting the economy to get better in the next six months rose 11 points to 42 percent of all firms, a very strong reading.

Much of this optimism on Main Street is due to large gains in their outlook for general business conditions. Especially encouraging were the statistics for employment-positive for the first time in nearly a year-and-a-half.

Over the past three months, 12 percent of these entrepreneurs reported increasing employment a seasonally adjusted average of more than six employees, while 14 percent said they reduced their workforces by just over three employees.

Are you listening Congress? Your pit crew-those small-business owners who keep the nation’s economic engine humming-is signaling that now is the time to make your move. The road ahead is clearing, just slightly, and the opportunities to jump into the lead are coming into view.

But it won’t be easy. There will be challenges and stern competition. No sooner than the first gavel of the 108th Congress fell, the opponents of free enterprise were trying to jump-start legislative proposals that would grind away the already-narrow profit margins small firms manage. They should pay heed to NFIB surveys which show that although sales trends improved slightly late last year, profit trends for small businesses did not rise with them. The net percent of those reporting higher earnings fell by three points.

In the survey, small business mapped out a winning strategy. But they can use some help from Congress: Taxes took first place as the single most important problem, while the cost and availability of insurance were right behind. Poor sales came next, followed by government regulation and red tape.

Wise legislating can win the race. By clearing the obstacles of anti-growth taxation and unaffordable health insurance, and by dodging the potholes of burdensome regulation, Congress can steer the small-business sector and the nation’s economy into Victory Lane.

JACK FARIS is president of the National Federation of Independent Business.