Ford’s Olsen “Super Proud” of GTD Pro Win After “Big Battles”

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Dennis Olsen said he was “super proud” to deliver the GTD Pro class victory for Ford Racing in Sunday’s TireRack Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after having a lot of “big battles’ in the closing stages of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship contest.

Olsen and co-driver Ben Barker gave the Blue Oval back-to-back wins at The Brickyard, after Seb Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller came out on top last year in last year’s race, which was a six-hour Michelin Endurance Cup round.

The Norwegian driver endured ‘high pressure’ closing laps that saw the No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Nikita Johnson out front after attempting to stretch his car’s energy, while also facing a hard-charging Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R from behind.

Johnson was forced into the pits on the second-to-final lap, while Olsen went door-to-door with Catsburg for the win in dramatic fashion.

“Luckily we had a strong Ford Mustang GT3 EVO that held up together,” said Olsen. “I had a lot of big battles in that last stint. I was trying to keep cool.

“Nicky is a good attacker and I knew what he was trying to do. But at the same time I had a [GTP] car coming up the inside that made it really tight to the apex of that corner.

“For sure we had some contact and we came out on the good side of it for sure, which was great.

“There was a lot of pressure on my side, but at the same time, it feels amazing that we can pull off this win because we’ve been chasing it for a long time with Ben this season.

“Honestly for the team and Ford Racing, I’m super proud.”

When asked if he knew of the McLaren’s situation, Olsen said his engineer let him know Johnson was “super tight” on energy.

“I tried to put pressure on him but honestly they were so quick that I just had one chance and wasn’t able to pull it off,” he said.

“I definitely had some pressure from behind as well, which I had to deal with. That gave him a gap to try to save.

“I was trying to push as hard as I could to keep pressure on him and not allow him to save enough energy, which we did in the end and pulled it off.

“I could see him sailing and just hoping that he couldn’t make it to the end.

“I was [also] a bit worried that I wouldn’t get past him and he would back me into Nicky, that I would get more trouble from behind.

“Traffic gave the McLaren quite a big gap. That freed up a little bit of space where I could push quite hard and although they were saving a lot, their pace was really strong.”

It marked Olsen’s first WeatherTech Championship victory since Ford’s historic class triumph in the 2025 Rolex 24 at Daytona, while Barker notched his first victory as a Ford factory driver.

The Englishman credited the Multimatic-run squad for an undercut strategy early into the two-hour and 40-minute race that ended up providing Olsen with perfect timing for the car’s second stop just moments before the race’s second and final yellow came out.

“It was pretty much everything,” said Barker. “As we know in IMSA, it’s part of the game of when you box. You’re always taking a bit of a [risk].

“From the start, from myself boxing early, that kind of set the trend for the rest of the race.

“It was obviously good timing. It shuffled us to the front. I don’t think we had the quickest car today but we maximized what we had and came away with a win in the end, so that’s all that matters.”

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