BRIAN OLSON – BUSY, BUT LIVING A DREAM
Brian Olson is living a
dream.If it involves drag racing, chances are he's done it. The Indiana resident’s duties over the years have included driver, custom-car painter, team manager, announcer, and television spokesman.
"I'm totally driven by passion," Olson said. "How many guys, honestly, get to say they get paid to do what they love to do? From being a racer, an announcer, to a guy who paints race cars...every facet of my life has something do with drag racing. It's a real cool world.
"I tell everyone all the time that I'm the most blessed guy on the planet, because I get paid to go to the drag races. There were times when I did the paying, and now I get paid to go, so it's a beautiful world."
And Olson plays a big part in bringing out that beauty. He, more than anyone else, understands that there's more to the lure of drag racing than the smell of nitro and tire smoke and the sound of heart-pounding engines. Fans are also attracted to the bright and shiny colors of the cars.
A jack-of-all-trades, Olson has raced, paints cars, works as a corporate diplomat and even announces drag races…
Brian Olson is living a
dream.
If it involves drag racing, chances are he's done it. The Indiana resident’s duties over the years
have included driver, custom-car painter, team manager, announcer, and
television spokesman.
"I'm totally driven by passion," Olson said. "How many guys,
honestly, get to say they get paid to do what they love to do? From being a
racer, an announcer, to a guy who paints race cars...every facet of my life has
something do with drag racing. It's a real cool world.
"I tell everyone all the time that I'm the most blessed guy on the planet,
because I get paid to go to the drag races. There were times when I did the
paying, and now I get paid to go, so it's a beautiful world."
And Olson plays a big part in bringing out that beauty. He, more than anyone
else, understands that there's more to the lure of drag racing than the smell
of nitro and tire smoke and the sound of heart-pounding engines. Fans are also
attracted to the bright and shiny colors of the cars.
That's where Olson Paint and Body comes in. His company has produced paint
schemes for some of the most-recognized cars in the sport. It's a business that
grew not only out his passion for drag racing, but also out of his love for the
cool-looking cars that competed.
"It really goes back to when I was kid, painting model cars," Olson
said. "I painted my first car when I was 14 (years-old) and I was 16 when
I did my first candy-apple paint job. From that point on I worked out of my
garage, and in 1984, I opened up Olson Paint and Body.
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"We had to go back to
my roots, so to speak, a few years ago, and go into custom painting. For the
past few years we've been back at it hot and heavy, and now we've done work for
some of the biggest names in the business."
The list is almost a who's who of drag racing, including the Carrier Boyz orange and black Fram dragster driven by Cory McClenathan, the David Powers Motorsports entries of Rod Fuller and Whit Bazemore, the POW/MIA dragster driven by Melanie Troxel, the Tuttle Motorsports Skull Shine/Torco Racing Fuels dragster driven by J.R. Todd, and the Pro Stock Bike entries of Karen Stoffer, Geno Scali, and Matt Smith, to name a few. The list also includes several sportsman racers, including Super Comp world champion Ron Erks, Brandon Wilkinson, Marty Thacker, and David Hedges.
"I've been fortunate," Olson said. "From by daughter Francie and my son Drew, to all the employees in the shop, I couldn't do it without them. They make it all possible."
From the pro perspective, Olson Paint and Body's
main job is to bring to life the image that looked perfect on a computer
screen.
"The first thing you have to do is you have to work with the designer," Olson said. "The guy who creates the drawings, whether it's big corporate folks or some other design company."
From there, his 10-member staff goes to work. The finished product features a Valspar/DeBeers base coat and clear coat, which is applied in a Blowtherm bake oven paint booth. Olson also uses House of Color in the apple colors exclusively.
The procedure for most jobs is basically the same, but there are differences, however.
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"You have a better
time frame with the sportsman racer," Olson said. "They don't have to
have their stuff done by the first race. Most of this stuff has to get done in
January (for the pros). In that four-to-six week period before testing, you may
do 25 cars. In fact, just before (the Gatornationals
in March) we finished seven units in nine days.
"So because of the sponsorships and the corporate backings that the pro teams receive, it's usually a tighter time frame and you deal with the corporate sponsors as far as the design or logo sets. But with the sportsmen, you have a little more time and you have a clean sheet of paper. Sportsmen don't have to come to you with drawings and images."
Another part of the job includes delivery, and that's where Olson tries to go what some might say goes above and beyond the call of duty.
"We have a pick-up and delivery guy who makes the trips for us," Olson said. "We hired a guy specifically for that, because that's part of the service you have to do because (the teams) don't have the time. We offer pick-up and delivery to all our customers. We work on whatever it takes. Lee Beard (Bazemore's crew chief) told me that of all the painters he's dealt with, he's never dealt with one that delivered on time and did everything he said he would do. That makes me feel good."
But Olson's involvement in drag racing doesn't end with a paint can.
In recent years, he helped assemble the Carrier Boys team, managed the Dave Connolly Pro Stock team when it was under the Evan Knoll Torco Racing banner,
and now he's a point man for the all teams sponsored by Torco. And on the side, he does announcing at IHRA events as well as doing some TV work on Speed
Channel.
He praises Knoll for giving him the opportunity to live out his dream at the drag races.
"Evan Knoll is driven by passion for this sport just like I am and I couldn't be prouder, to not only work for him, but to also be able to call him one of my best friends," Olson said. "I've been called the busiest guy in drag racing. I get to go to the (NHRA) races on (Knoll's) behalf, and then do the IHRA announcing and actually get paid. The true reality is that IHRA is relaxation for me."
And he loves it.
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