Olsen, Barker Land Full-Time Seats in Ford Multimatic Shuffle

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker will embark on a full season campaign in the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 EVO as part of a driver shuffle that sees Mike Rockenfeller and Seb Priaulx separated and reduced to endurance-only roles in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Announced on Thursday, Ford Multimatic will head into its third season of GTD Pro competition with its third different set of driver lineups, although the No 65 entry will continue with the pairing of Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies, who along with Olsen won this year’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

With Olsen stepping up to a full-time role in the No. 64 entry, Priaulx will complete the lineup in the No. 65 machine for Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Motul Petit Le Mans, with Rockenfeller, the lone-remaining full-time driver that had been part of the factory program since its inception, moving into an endurance-only role in the sister car.

All six drivers took part in last month’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway in their new lineup configurations.

“It’s an honor to be representing Ford Racing and Multimatic Motorsports as a full-time driver in the No. 64 Mustang GT3 this season,” Olsen wrote in a blog post.

“While this will be my first complete season in IMSA, I know what to expect. I’ve been to most of the tracks already, except for Virginia International Raceway and the streets of Detroit.”

Barker, similarly, also holds experience at the majority of the tracks on the WeatherTech Championship calendar, having contested a six-race campaign in GB Autosport’s Porsche GTD class entry in 2014, in addition to his more recent duties as one of Ford’s endurance drivers in the series.

Both Olsen and Barker served as Ford Racing’s pro-graded drivers in Proton Competition’s LMGT3 lineups in the WEC the past two seasons and look set to focus their efforts on the WeatherTech Championship next year due to two clashes between the championships.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Logan Sargeant, who took part in last month’s WEC Bahrain rookie test with Proton, has been tipped to fill one of those seats in the WEC.

The 2026 motorsports season will mark the 125th anniversary of Ford Racing.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John