TRG team boss Kevin Buckler admitted he was delighted with more success in the Rolex 24 at Daytona after seeing his team secure a 1-2 finish in the GT class.

The #67 car eventually secured the victory in a fine ninth place overall, with the sister #66 car coming home a lap behind in second place.

It came after a long battle with the #86 Farnbacher Loles Porsche, which had been in contention before it ran into problems with a driveshaft issue dropping the car out of the lead battle, and capped the perfect start to the 2009 campaign.

“It was challenging right up until the point the #86 car broke, because they were chasing us really hard,” Buckler admitted. “They had us covered and we were out of sequence on the pitstops and it was back and forth between us. They put together one hell of a car but when they broke, it became a two-horse race and both of them were ours.

“It's awesome,[to get] the1-2 finish. We have had some heartbreak hear and some unbelievable moments and this is one of the unbelievable moments. I've been coming here since 1995 and 2002 is when our run started. Someone asked me how many trophies we have here and it's nine from the Rolex weekends. I can't believe it.”

Amongst the driving talent in the #67 machine, Porsche factory driver Patrick Long secured his first Rolex 24 win and he admitted that the drivers hadn't had it easy on track.

“I've done it three times in a GT class car and three times in a DP car, and I've never had to work as hard as I did this year,” he said. “It just goes to show that sometimes the GT guys are the unsung heroes of the race. That's taking nothing away from the DP class and this year it was phenomenal, but there are two races going on out there which is the cool thing about sportscar racing. Some people may discount it as a class win but I have run here overall and come close to the win but I didn't have to drive any harder to do that. It's all about going out there and driving as fast as you can.

“I think it's pretty unbelievable that TRG locked out the top two positions and it was an all Porsche podium. That means I was in pretty good company. For me personally as a driver, to not have the Rolex 24 as one of the endurance races I have wanted to win has eaten away at me for the last five seasons. To get Le Mans quite early in my career, as well as Petit Le Mans and Sebring, I often wondered if I was ever going to win this race. To get it is surreal and gives me a phenomenal, tingling kind of feeling.”