LEWISTON — Patrick Dempsey’s work to compete in auto racing’s most famous endurance race — France’s 24-hour-long Le Mans — will be the focus of a new four-episode reality TV show debuting Wednesday.
It may even include a little local footage.
A crew from Discovery’s car-culture network, Velocity, filmed the TV and movie star last fall during the Dempsey Challenge, said Mark Turcotte, a spokesman for the annual event.
Dempsey, 47, grew up in Turner and Buckfield. He is currently filming the 10th season of TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy.”
However, he’s been wearing racing outfits almost as long as he’s been pulling on his McDreamy character’s surgical scrubs. About 10 years ago, his wife bought him a gift certificate for a three-day racing class. Soon he was racing in a variety of classes in world famous tracks.
“Racing is my true passion, and taking on Le Mans will be the biggest challenge of my life so far,” Dempsey said in a news release. “Le Mans pushes both driver and machine to the absolute brink, testing stamina, skill and endurance unlike any other event in the world. Just getting to Le Mans is almost as challenging as the race itself. This project reflects a 360-degree-view of the entire race process — including all the ups and downs along the way.”
In 2009, Dempsey joined a team that placed ninth in its class. This year, he took his own team, co-owned by Italian soccer star Alessandro Del Piero, to the race.
He and co-drivers Patrick Long and Joe Foster drove a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and finished fourth in their professional/amateur class. The series concludes with the race, which ran June 22 and 23.
But the previous three episodes look at how Dempsey finds time to race amid a star’s hectic schedule. It also looks at other actors who’ve become talented drivers, particularly 1979 Le Mans racer Paul Newman.
“Paul Newman has been an obvious inspiration for me,” Dempsey told Road & Track magazine in 2009. “He did such an amazing job of balancing family, acting, driving, team ownership, philanthropy and community service. There will never be anyone like him again; he was just so remarkable in each of his pursuits. I appreciate that he took his racing so seriously and was so successful doing it.”
“Patrick Dempsey: Racing Le Mans” is scheduled to air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. On Time Warner Cable, the Velocity network is found at channel 776.
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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- Patrick Dempsey’s work to compete France’s 24-hour-long Le Mans is the focus of a new reality TV show debuting Wednesday.
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