From the bits & pieces I saw when I got away from our booth & wasn't under a car, looks like we all had fun, even the ones who broke

I helped D!ck Kearney with his rear suspension/springs early on cause he couldn't get it to hook at all. He had to remove the coil overs to be legal, and had cargo springs and rubber blocks in there making it real hard to get any weight transfer. I joked with Dave about helping out his competition, but they are all friends & just like most other Buick guys, we all help each other to go faster. Jason also helped Dave get his boost control going, since Dave was trying a new idea we had & had a problem with the actuator that prevented it from working properly. Dave was going 10.30's spinning on the line on 19psi early on, which a few people were doubting his quote on the boost level. I know Dave & he doesn't play games like that, if he says 19 it's 19.
As far as how he launched in the elimination runs, we were still sorting the suspension out & trying stuff. We added a bag of luggage to the trunk (approx 15 lbs) to ensure weight to be good, after hearing Scott Simpson say he was off 30 lbs for 2 runs. Dave's alignment was off, so we had air in the bags to help it handle OK at high speeds. This threw the bar angle off & made it launch poor (for our expectations), but later found out it was decent for the track condition & weather (HOT 86 degrees/100% humidity). We went from 5 psi to 12 psi (evenly) and made it handle better but launch with the "bouncies". We were starting to add our air-bag spacers to be able to drop the pressure in the bags, but we heard the second call to the lanes for TSM. We figured we didn't have time, so we left it alone. After sitting up there for a LONG time waiting to run, hindsight told us we should have kept working on it & still had plenty of time to sit in the lanes. That is one of the runs that we tried a soft launch which should have been safer & better on the 60 ft. Well, we found out if the turbo is NOT up to a decent speed/level, the first 330' is kinda slow compared to the rest of the run. The 9.99 run it spun off the line but hooked enough & got up to speed fast & worked out fine.
We then finally got the spacers in, dropped the pressures to 4-1/2 evenly, and tried the short burnout/med launch against Keith Egan. It was smooth but kinda slow off the line, then ran great out the other end, with a hurt gasket & rising temps. At that time we figured it was just burning the water up, no noise or messes. The noise off the line on Dave's car comes from his tensioner, we confirmed by dropping the belt off & running it. We then dropped the bag pressure to 1 (basically empty) and got some decent travel out of the rear suspension again, but kept it up high enough for stable high speeds. We figured a short burnout was best, and the car would transfer more weight on the launch, so stage it hotter & hit it as hard as you can & cut a light. All I can say when it's all set right & working together, you know it's a good run. As Dave reported along with many others, on the 9.45 run, it came out like a mad dog! It still spins, but hooks up fast & hard as the weight transfers. With the turbo up to speed as well, it pulls like a mad dog the whole way!
For the record, our suspension package was on Dave's car (upper adj, long lowers, and swaybar + airbag spacers at the end). With only a few passes on the car last year and about the same this year, a new combo, small turbo housing, bad alignment, HOT weather, poor track conditions (NOT the crews fault), slow transbrake button, rubbing rear tires, I think it's absolutely amazing that Dave got it going that fast, and gets 2 thumbs up from me !!!! I think Jason may have run a 9 as well, since I heard his 10-0 run was way down on mph from brakes

but we will never know. Thinking back to my days of 10.70's at 124, Dave's run on an honest 5 cyl's (inj wire off) going 122 makes me ill. That car was on, no if/ands/or buts. As for the 9.45, well it would be nice to say our suspension package can change a 1.7 60 ft time into a 0.994, but I think actual results may vary
We figure that as he launched on boost, steam/water/combustion was shot right out under the pass door, and delayed the trip of the lights. The .7xx reaction time was actually much better, and the extra time should have been added to the 60 ft time to be more realistic, along with the rest of the run. Knowing Daves other runs off the T-brake were .5xx reaction times, he may have gotten a .30 - .40 at best. That would put his 60 ft up to a mid 1.3 to mid 1.4, which sounds right from witnesses & Daves seat-of-the-pants indicator. With D!ck cutting a better .1xx light, he had the starting line advantage. With Dave coming out hard & having a few MPH on him at half track, that explains the "ahead by a fender" witnesses at half track. With Dave lifting around the 1000 ft mark, that explains the lower MPH than expected for a 9 sec run, but still better than D!cks mph. I have no doubt it was a 9.80 to 9.90 run, but this can be debated forever.
Bottom line,
We all had fun,
Dave ran the only official 9 second pass in TSM at this years Nat's,
Dave made it to the finals against a tough crowd in poor conditions,
Jason won it (again) (GREAT JOB!),
Everyone was doing good for the weather/heat and 9's were in reach for a few,
and 9.3's don't seem out of range for a legal TSM entry on a good track with good weather. Dave was only at 26 psi with conservative timing and still has a tenth or 2 to pickup on the launch (sorry, cat's out of the bag now). I will be looking for a REAL 9.45 later this year, if he can keep the gaskets in there, and a few right on his tail, or other way around

Congrats to ALL, exciting class! Can't wait to get the Nat's video & see what all happened.
If ANYONE has other pics or video's of the TSM runs (or other cool Buick stuff), PLEASE send them to me. I would like to post them on our site.
PS- I think 122 mph on a true 5 cyls should be a good enough backup run for all, works for me. I doubt if I could have broke 105 mph on 5
PPS- D!ck looked REAL GOOD in his new ride down there! I believe his TSM car is for sale, 20K I believe. Not bad for a solid TSM car with LOT's of good parts & proven up 9- low 10 sec performance, for someone looking to join in the FUN!