Race Car Driver
Dempsey enjoys auto racing in his spare time, having competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race, and Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road race. He was a co-owner of the Vision Racing IndyCar Series team and current owner of Dempsey Racing, which is presently racing two Mazda RX-8 cars in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT class. He participates in this series as often as his schedule allows, as he is unable to race while filming a movie due to insurance issues. In 2009, he raced a Team Seattle Advanced Engineering Ferrari F430 GT in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans's GT2 class, and finished ninth in class.
Dempsey announced he would be in the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona along with other races throughout the season in a Mazda RX-8. Dempsey finished in third place in the GT Class of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
In 2012, Dempsey will compete in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge behind the wheel of an Aston Martin Racing-Multimatic Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4, which, after 5 successful racing seasons in Europe, will be making its debut on American tracks.
Dempsey also formed the Dempsey Racing team which competes in the American Le Mans Series. The team fields a full-time Oreca FLM09 in the Prototype Challenge class as well as a Lola B12/80 coupe in the Prototype 2 class (with Patrick himself driving) from Laguna Seca onward.
Dempsey is also known to have a collection of sports and collector cars.
Read more about this topic: Patrick Dempsey
Famous quotes containing the words race, car and/or driver:
“I don’t like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore its passing, for as a basically old- fashioned machine, it enshrines a basically old-fashioned idea: freedom. In terms of pollution, noise and human life, the price of that freedom may be high, but perhaps the car, by the very muddle and confusion it causes, may be holding back the remorseless spread of the regimented, electronic society.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“God help the horse, and the driver too!
And the people and beasts who have never a friend!
For the driver easily might have been you,
And the horse be me by a different end!
And nobody knows how their days will cease!
And the poor, when they’re old, have little of peace!”
—James Kenneth Stephens (1882–1950)