Catching Up With: Kevin Buckler

Richard Dunn

These days, you don’t hear much about car rallies, but they were

hip with teenagers in the 1970s and grew to legendary proportions in some

circles -- including Newport Beach, where Kevin Buckler learned to drive

his 240Z in sometimes frantic spins and turns.

There’s a clue at each stop to help you find the next stop, and so on,

until the last stop of the car rally. Each car has a driver and

navigator. Clues are not always easy to figure out and every mistake is

costly against time.

Just like in real auto racing.

“Who would have thought a guy like me would go from those car rallies

to this?” said Buckler, President of the Racer’s Group in Sonoma, and

lead driver of the 24-driver Porsche Factory racing team.

“I never would have thought I’d become a race car driver. If you went

back 20 years and turned the clock forward, I’m sure I never would have

thought I’d be driving Porsches professionally. It’s actually really

neat, too. I’ve got to say, it’s a lot of work, but I’m doing what I want

to do.”

These days, Buckler isn’t counting street lights or looking for white

envelopes taped to the back of a park bench, while trying to obey state

automobile laws.

Instead, he’s working overtime to prepare his car, a 2002 Porsche

GT3-RS, and crew for the 40th annual Grand-Am Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona

Feb. 2-3, the first and most grueling race on the Grand American Road

Racing Series schedule.

“That’ll be our biggest event of the year,” said Buckler, who has also

hired Daytona veteran Michael Schrom of Ghent, N.Y., and recently

imported Porsche Factory drivers Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister, both

of Germany, to drive the company car at the prestigious Rolex 24.

Buckler, 42, has come a long way in a short time, beginning in 1995,

when a buddy nudged at him to turn pro, after Buckler won myriad amateur

races.

But you can’t win at Daytona overnight. It takes major funding to

produce a race car and crew. “You want the best equipment and the best

drivers,” Buckler said. “It’s taken us (seven years), but now we’re

there. We have a crack at a victory ... we could crap out, or we could

win the race.”

As a pro, Buckler has won plenty of poles and enjoyed numerous podium

finishes, but he’s looking for champagne spray on his face as he competes

for the North American championship this year in the GT Class.

Buckler, who has owned and operated his company since 1992, isn’t

exactly a young buck on the circuit, but is getting better with age and

staying at the front of the pack.

“Team owners either don’t drive or they’re usually kind of slow,” said

Buckler, who plans to remain as team owner when he retires from the

cockpit.

Buckler, however, who said “it all started by doing doughnuts in front

of Newport Harbor High in my 240Z,” believes his best racing days are

still ahead of him.

Buckler, who grew up in Dover Shores and played tennis at Newport

Harbor and UC Santa Barbara, also lives in Sonoma with his wife, Debra,

and three daughters: Katie, 5, Alyssa, 3, and Kelly, 1.

The Racer’s Group is a full-service racing facility, including custom

fabrication and engine building, located at the track at Sears Point

Raceway in Sonoma -- in the heart of wine country, where Buckler is also

an owner of a newly started winery and label (Adobe Road), which will be

ready next year.

From his days in car rallies with friend and navigator Jeff Kuun,

Buckler has indeed come a long way. But the true fermentation has just

begun.