For Ford Racing, the Detroit Grand Prix is a kind of homecoming. Just under 15 miles from the recently revamped Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Mustang GT3 EVO Coyote V8 engines rumble through the streets of Motor City in front of thousands of hometown fans.
Coming into the manufacturer’s home race, factory drivers Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker – who are searching for their first big result of the season in the #64 – experienced firsthand the magnitude of the brand they represent when they visited its new HQ ahead of their debut with the Blue Oval on the streets of Detroit.
“It’s cool to be able to see here, Ford’s home track. It’s pretty special. We did a tour of Henry Ford’s house, and then the new Ford HQ up in Dearborn, which is pretty awesome. It’s massive!” said Barker. “It was nice to finally see the home of Ford and get an idea of what it is like.”
Last time here marked an extra special outing in downtown Detroit for Ford, with the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports car of Sebastian Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller winning handily from pole. This year, the #64 car has a new full-season driver duo of Olsen and Barker set to take action around the street circuit and defend their win.
However, this year’s Detroit Grand Prix is a first for both drivers, as neither has raced on a pure street track in North America. A slight exception is that Barker is not entirely new to Detroit, having made a start at Belle Isle for GB Autosport in 2014.
Dennis Olsen became a factory driver for Ford in 2024, competing in the WEC with Proton Competition in the #88, the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, and in IMSA in the GTD class at Daytona, the latter two alongside Ben Barker.
In 2025, he helped the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports crew, alongside the current #65 duo – Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch – to a class victory in GTD Pro at Daytona, while also holding a full-time WEC seat.
Ben Barker similarly joined the Ford family as a factory driver in 2024, competing in the WEC in the #77 Proton Competition, the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup, and IMSA GTD.
Barker was a part of the #64 Ford Multimatic driver line-up last season for Sebring and Petit Le Mans, in addition to his full-year WEC duties, contributing to the #64’s consistent season, which saw them finish third in the GTD Pro championship standings.
The ever-evolving nature of the Detroit street circuit in terms of grip level and track temperature due to shadows and sun angle makes for a steep learning curve for first-timers here. After their first two practice sessions around the track, Olsen and Barker commented on some key surprises from their first crack at it.
“It’s really bumpy. It’s really tight as well. I wasn’t expecting that. Much narrower than I thought it was going to be,” said Barker. “At the exit of Turn 1 and exit of 4, it’s super narrow and pretty slippery.
“There’s a sort of changing grip level, and then the narrowness was the two biggest things to get used to, but equally it’s quite a straightforward track to learn.”
During the slightly chaotic early Friday run, the green track caused many cars to consistently overshoot braking zones at Turns 1, 2 and 3. The #64 only had one instance of a lack of grip, catching them out, when Barker went off track in turn three.
“It’s way more bumpy than it looks on the track walk!” Olsen commented, sharing how it feels to be tackling this home race, starting from scratch with the track. “I think where the knowledge and knowing the track would benefit us a lot is just like where the grip is, and when it comes. Because for us, everything we were doing was exploring.”
“Going out, the grip was extremely low everywhere, but then it gives you hints of, okay, it’s biting a bit here, and it’s biting a bit there. So you’re getting into the groove.”
Notably, the #64 banked a good haul of laps in both practices, hanging right around the more experienced #65 car in the session results.
Due to shared track time with IndyCar, the track’s rubbering-in process looks very different when another tyre compound is added to the mix. Qualifying was Olsen and Barker’s first time encountering this kind of texture on track. However, Barker did not seem overly concerned with what effect this would have on their running at that point.
“It’s our first time ever driving with Firestone on the track, so I have no idea. It’s a bit of an unknown,” said Barker ahead of qualifying on Friday afternoon. “We know where we stand at the moment as far as set up and balance are concerned, and feel quite comfortable.”
The #64 car qualified fourth in GTD Pro on Friday evening, with Barker posting a competitive 1:09.708, 0.354 seconds off the pole-sitter, the #3 Pratt Miller Corvette.
The sister #65 Ford Racing Mustang, qualified by Frédéric Vervisch, finished the session one place behind the #64, 0.164 seconds back. That close of a margin to the more experienced Mies-Vervisch duo is a testament to how well Olsen and Barker have applied the information they gathered during their limited track time.
Going into Saturday evening’s race, the #64 driver duo looks to defend Ford’s GTD Pro win from last year, but it won’t be easy, especially as their rivals from General Motors have had the edge on pace through practice and qualifying.
Nevertheless, Olsen and Barker will look to maximise their performance across different conditions and keep pushing as they seek to climb the standings and enter the title fight.
“It’s a different year, different circumstances. We want to win, and it’s great what they did last year,” said Barker. “We’re just going to do our best, and if it’s going to be a win, that’s great.”
“Even as first-timers, the expectation is still to win, but we have to be realistic as well,” Olsen commented. “We’ll do it step by step, but we got a good feeling already, which then sets the bar a bit higher than what the initial expectation was, personally. So the bar is always rising.”
Images courtesy of Ford Racing
