"They all gel together because if you don't then you'll fall apart like a chain," he said, after the Hawkeyes beat the Palmerston North Panthers and Canterbury Glen Eagles to qualify from their pool of three teams before silencing the Manawatu Mustangs in the semifinal.
No doubt luck played a pivotal part in the Hawkeyes' ascendancy in the 36th meeting with even Buckrell's game of chance having an uncanny outcome.
"I go for the coin toss at the start of each race to see who's going to be in pole position and I won it every time.
"I'm not sure if it had a little bit to do with the planets aligning but we were just over the moon," a jubilant Buckrell, who also is Bay club president, said after the 15-lap, 18-second a lap final.
To demonstrate luck in another way, retired Bay driver Murray Long, 53, was inducted into the hall of fame at the weekend as the record holder of competing at 20 team champs but his son, Jason Long, this weekend entered it for the first time and got on the podium.
"It was the best night for Murray. He had tears in his eyes," Buckrell said. "It wasn't about drivers, coaches or managers. It was for the club."
He said behind the scenes of all the high-octane action were 50-odd people who voluntary performed tasks such as painting cars, signwriting, putting up posters and merchandising.
"It's all just one big roadshow, really."
Buckrell also lauded the legion of loyal Hawkeyes supporters who got behind them over the years, including via social media, despite coming away empty-handed.
Jason Long, debuting with Stanaway and Ryan, said they had clicked as a team of four from the first race so much so that Ryan didn't get on the track as the reserve driver.
Adhering to the blueprint was imperative, with McLachlan designated a blocker in masterfully slowing down other drivers to pave the way for Jude and Stanaway to get across the line first.
Long had the licence to roam, contributing in whatever way he could when the opportunity arose.
The 23-year-old did, adroitly blocking in one race and crossing the line first in the final to ensure his toiling teammates' efforts didn't go to waste.
A laughing Long drew on luck again in explaining their good fortune.
For some inexplicable reason they did not sustain major damage to their cars whereas the Britons were down to just two cars.
"It makes it a lot easier when you have four cars out there racing and we had that in every race while the other teams seldom had the same three cars out there," he said, revealing all teams had good gears so mechanically speaking they were on a par.
Long said their consistency and reliability boiled down to ensuring their cars were in good nick.
That sense of preparation extended to a team culture that wasn't quibbling about travelling to compete as a unit in Nelson, Wellington, the Bay and Tauranga before the big one at the weekend.
"We had four races leading up to the team champs while others just had one or two, in some cases, none."
In the final, the writing was on the wall for the Great Britain Lions when one of their cars hit the wall and the red light came up about eight laps into the race to deem it unsafe in the roller cage.
"We tried to look after our lead car, which was Steve at that stage, so we stayed out of trouble.
"In the end, Steve ended up looking after me but at the end of the day it doesn't matter who crosses the line first because we all come away as winners," Long said as the Hawkeyes partied long into the night at their motel.
