From James Dean to Jason Priestley, Hollywood has long had a fascination with fast cars. Steve McQueen, Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker), Tom Cruise and Alfonso Ribeiro, Carlton from “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” all tried their hands at serious racing with varying degrees of success.
The standard by which actors-turned-racers are measured is Paul Newman. He won Oscars and pro races. He also put his money where his passion was and has co-owned a top-flight open-wheel team for more than 20 years.
But another could be rivaling Newman.
Patrick Dempsey is a star on the hit TV series “Grey’s Anatomy” and a leading man in the movies. He co-owns Vision Racing with IRL founder Tony George in the IndyCar Series. Most of all, he’s a part-time performer in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and its GT class.
Patrick Dempsey showed off his handsomeness, er, atuo racing stills at the Rolex Grand-Am Series Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway at Daytona Beach, Florida on Thursday afternoon.
Patrick Dempsey, 42, has been racing in his No. 40 Hyper Sport Mazda RX-8 and loving it, saying, “It allows the athletic side of my nature to come out. It’s such a nice departure from Los Angeles and Hollywood.”
“I’d like to grow up some day and be a race car driver full-time,” Dempsey joked. “It’s hard because one helps the other, quite honestly. I’m not quite there yet in my other career, but I’d love to be able to commit fully to this, a full season where that’s all I’m doing. It would help me improve tremendously.”
Joe Foster, Hyper Sport teammate in the No. 40 Mazda, doesn’t see Dempsey’s turn as a whim. He sees a person who is serious about the craft of road racing.
“He has no fear of these things,” Foster said, adding Dempsey is a quick study who takes direction well, just what one would expect to find in an actor. “The learning curve is very steep. This is a very challenging car on a world stage. There are all kinds of reasons why this is where we need to be and it’s an appropriate place for Patrick as a driver, but it’s very challengingbut it’s very challenging.”
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