North Carolina’s CORE autosport and Porsche Cars North America had a perfect opening to their relationship last year. A debut victory in the GT Le Mans class at the Rolex 24 at Daytona (BELOW LEFT) for the new Porsche North America team was borderline amazing, and they managed to follow it with a remarkable win at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

With two of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s biggest prizes in hand, the next order of business was securing the season-long GTLM Manufacturers’ and Teams’ titles. PNA’s hot streak would cool rather quickly as Victory Lane proved an elusive destination through the remaining nine rounds.

Two podiums would come their way by the finale at Petit Le Mans, and while there was disappointment in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR and sister No. 912 entry placing outside the top-3 in the Teams’ standings, the legendary German brand triumphed in the Manufacturers’ championship over Dodge, Chevrolet, BMW, and Ferrari.

Every brand insists the Manufacturers’ title is the only thing that matters, however, at the team level, there’s an equal importance in earning race wins and the Teams’ title. Go one level deeper, and you’ll find the folks who pilot the cars want nothing more than to capture the Drivers’ championship.

With the same three crowns up for grabs in 2015, PNA team manager Morgan Brady says they’re on a hunt to fill their trophy case with more hardware.

“We’ve been working hard, not just over the past 12 months, but really going back to 2010, to take big steps, and without a doubt, going into 2014 was certainly our biggest step with the responsibility of the Porsche factory team,” Brady told RACER.

“We were somewhat new to the Porsche family, and when we put on the Porsche shirts for the first time, we definitely felt a lot of weight and a lot of responsibility to bring success to that program. We are always aiming for increases – to improve, and those are the expectations we’ve set for ourselves this year.”

Looking at the relationship between CORE and Porsche, delivering the Manufacturers’ championship in their first year operating under the PNA banner demonstrated the full capabilities of the Jon Bennett-owned team. It also left Bennett, Brady, and all of those working within the PNA camp a hard act to follow; retaining the Manufacturers’ title would be akin to matching their initial output. Adding to their accomplishments in Year 2 of the program is what PNA is going after.

“We really looked at everything with a controlled approach, and that has continued,” Brady said. “There’s obviously a lot of lofty goals for this program, and if you look at it from that angle, it’s a little overwhelming, but if you look at it day by day and break down the big goals into smaller, more bite-size goals, it becomes more manageable.

“That was our outlook every day that we showed up at the racetrack, and it became manageable to have success with the program. I think we showed that very quickly, going by the results of winning Sebring and Daytona. Of course, the goals are now higher.”

Brady says CORE’s consecutive championships in the PC class has been the blueprint for the PNA effort, and he’s put his faith in those processes taking the 911 RSRs to greater success in 2015.

“Looking ahead, ever since we entered the ALMS, we won the championship our first year, and a lot of people said, ‘What are you going to do next year? How are you going to top it?’” he noted. “After winning four PC championships, I don’t think we’re going to do anything different going for a fifth. We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.

“We think we have a formula that works but we’re never cocky. We’re always a little paranoid about what comes next and we have really done a lot of work in the off-season, both programs, to refine our operations and bring a lot more attention to detail to everything that we do.”

Thanks to the rather restrictive ACO rules that govern cars in GTLM, PNA’s pursuit of increased glory will only come through finding the same type of small refinements that limit every manufacturer in the class.

“It is certainly a big challenge with GTLM as the strict as the regulations are, but I really like the position that our team specifically is in because, unlike the other teams in the class, every single racetrack we showed up to last year was the first time for us with the 911 RSR,” Brady explained. “We had zero data on the car and we really spent the first two sessions of any given event just doing some sweeps, just trying to figure out where we were with the car.

“As time went on we got a better handle on the car, but a lot of improvement came from just having more time and experience with the car. There isn’t a lot we could change on the cars in the offseason, but we’re really excited to go back to these tracks where we have data, we know what works, and can really hit the ground running. I think that ‘refining small details’ theme can be carried into every single thing that we’re doing with the team for the year.”

The PNA team will have a smaller learning curve to deal with on the chassis side of the equation, and will also have some adjustments to make with modest changes to the driver roster. Entering the Rolex 24 last year, Nick Tandy, Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb shared the No. 911, and Lietz has been replaced by Patrick Pilet (LEFT).

The No. 912 will have two new drivers as Patrick Long, who will drive for the Falken Porsche team at Daytona, and Michael Christiansen, have been traded for Earl Bamber and Frédéric Makowiecki as teammates for Jorg Bergmeister. Brady is confident the altered lineup will perform in Porsche’s classic machine-like manner

“We’re looking at it as a plug-and-play deal, and we worked with all these drivers at some point over the course of last year,” he said. “Porsche does such a great job with their driver program and their junior driver program. All these guys have their own unique personality but they all come from that same base Porsche DNA.

“All of them are great to work with. All of them are team players. All of them know that we’re here for the Manufacturer’s championship first. The focus of any year, whether you have your same drivers or not, is really to build that cohesive team spirit that I think was something we were able to do very quickly last year. I’m sure we can do the same thing again.”

PNA will has a long fight on the horizon – 10 rounds of GTLM battles – in their bid to capture as many championships as possible, and despite everything they celebrated in 2014, Brady knows that history won’t factor into the final standings.

“Last year was great, but we start from zero every year,” he said. “That is how we are looking at the season, just like every other season, and that’s worked for us. We’re all at zero right now.”