Full-season TUDOR Championship participation paying dividends for Dempsey

Hollywood superstar Patrick Dempsey makes his third attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend. Dempsey is sharing the No. 79 Dempsey Racing-Proton Porsche with fellow TUDOR Championship competitor Patrick Long, and his long-time motorsports business partner, Joe Foster; it’s the same all-American driver lineup that challenged for a victory and finished fourth in the GTE Am class last year.

Friday afternoon, Dempsey credited his TUDOR Championship participation for making a significant contribution to his Le Mans preparation.

“Because of the large car count that we’ve had this season and the different classes, all of that stuff really helps you in traffic here,” Dempsey said. “It’s really good. I think the situational awareness, and trying to stay out of trouble in the traffic really applies here. I think that’s what I’ve gained the most out of the series.”

Patrick Dempsey

Photo by: James Holland

After this weekend, Dempsey will be back driving his No. 27 Porsche 911 GT America in the TUDOR Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) class. He is looking forward to the opportunity, as the team brought on some new engineers prior to the Detroit event on May 31 that have helped to improve the car.

His next TUDOR Championship race start will be the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, at Watkins Glen International, on June 29.

“We have a test at Indy [next week], we’ve realigned the team, and I’m really happy with the adjustments we’ve made going forward for the rest of the year,” Dempsey said. “I think we’re going to have a lot better results. We’ll do some more testing, then we have Watkins Glen, and then I go off to Brazil and get some Porsche Cup testing down there to race there later in the year.”

A soccer fan, Dempsey also will get an opportunity to take in some World Cup action while in Brazil.

NASCAR Wire Service