Kevin Buckler’s The Racers Group outfit had won the GT class at Daytona in 2002, aided by two young Porsche factory drivers: Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister.

“2002 was the first time they’d ever been to the US, and it was with us,” says Buckler. “At first, I didn’t really want these Porsche UPS Junior Drivers – but they turned out to be legendary.”

Bernhard and Bergmeister usually didn’t get to talk much during races. They were regular team-mates back in the early 2000s, but during the 2003 race they had the chance to have a chat and set themselves what before the race would have looked like an outlandish target.

That goal was to win the famous event outright aboard a GT class car, and not even an entry from the top category (called GTS back then) for production-based machinery. 

“I’d stepped out of the car just before midnight and it was one of the rare times that I ran into Jorg during a race,” recalls two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Bernhard. “We were sat in the truck, and we said, ‘You know what, we can do this, we can win this overall.’ I really believed we could do it.”

Their car had moved into the lead as early as the sixth hour, after which Gentleman driver Michael Schrom, the fourth driver on the team, “did his couple of stints really well” relates Buckler. But their eyes remained focused on the big prize in their…