I was using Watir 1.4.1 and the performace was pretty good. But when I uninstalled 1.4.1 and installed 1.5.1192 gem - the test execution time increaded dramatically.

Here goes:
test.rb
------------------------
  require 'watir' # the watir controller
  include Watir
  require 'test/unit'
  require 'test/unit/ui/console/testrunner'
  
  
   
   class TC_BTMSSID < Test::Unit::TestCase
 
   def setTestVars
      $no_rows_programs = 11
      $ProgramName = "Program001"
   end
    
      
    def test3_drugSubstance
      $ie = Watir::IE.attach(:title, /Material/)
      
      $ie.text_field(:index, 1).flash
      $ie.text_field(:id, /NoOfTests/).set("4")
      $ie.wait
      
      
      
    end
      
  end
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I have 2 html files that will demonstrate this problem - They are fairly large.