Olsen Was ‘Watching the Mirror in Every Corner’ En Route to Win

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Dennis Olsen revealed he was watching his mirror through “every corner” in the closing stages of the Rolex 24 at Daytona as “chaos” unfolded behind him in the battle for GTD Pro class honors.

Olsen and Ford Multimatic Motorsports co-drivers Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch claimed the first win for the Ford Mustang GT3 in global competition in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

It came in a hard-fought battle that turned physical on-track for some GTD Pro competitors, with multiple penalties issued in the closing hour for incidents.

The Norwegian got past the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the final restart with 38 minutes to go and then managed to hold off the sister No. 3 Corvette of Alexander Sims through a frantic final 20 minutes.

He then got a breather as a battle between Sims, the No. 4 Corvette of Nico Varrone and Kelvin van der Linde’s No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO ended when the South African was tagged into a spin in Turn 1.

“I have to say I was watching the mirror every single corner about the Chevy coming up the inside and I just really made sure to cover them up and just prayed that the car would hold [and] hope that the diffuser and the bumper doesn’t go off and getting a technical flag, but luckily [it] didn’t,” Olsen said.

“Eventually the chaos started and I managed to get a gap and from there it was a bit more comfortable luckily.

“I think it was a faultless race by all the team, by all the drivers. It’s incredible having Ford Performance and Multimatic, [a] new structure, new lineups. Incredible.”

Vervish added: “Basically the race starts the last four hours, let’s say, and until then you want to have a proper car, car in the best shape possible so you can fight, because like every year it’s a sprint race.

“It’s the last 15 minutes, ten minutes of the race which counts, and yeah, you want to be in the best possible shape.

“It’s difficult because there’s a lot of different categories, different battles in different classes, and then you have the teams where you have to be fast enough but careful and a lot of misunderstandings, as well.

“Like Dennis said and Chris, we did an amazing job to just keep the car in one piece and then to give him a strong car for the end, and that’s what made us win, I think.”

Vervisch said the rivalry between Ford and GM reached a highpoint entering the race, with some extra pressure from Ford CEO Jim Farley.

“It’s quite a struggle, the battle between Ford and Chevrolet,” he said. “Yesterday we met Jim Farley, and he said whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet, as a joke, of course.

“[But] of course we were aware of this, and I think they’re extremely strong, and I think they hide their A game because suddenly they were going a lot faster than yesterday.

“[I’m] super proud that we could stay ahead and maybe out-[strategize] them. I will not say too much, but we did some very ‘ballsy’ calls I would say in the team, so big congrats to the team, as well, for that.”