The greatest actor-racer of our era, Patrick Dempsey has garnered podium finishes at Circuit of The Americas, Laguna Seca and Petit at Le Mans. Now he’s determined to place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most coveted trophy in endurance racing. We caught up with the Tag Heuer ambassador in New York City recently to talk about his unique career.
A native of Lewiston, Maine, Dempsey started playing competitive sports when he was just a child. In the north’s snowy climate, he soon grew into an avid competitive skier, and his racing spirit flowed from there. So how did he go from sports to acting?
“I loved to race. I was looking to practice my balance and so I took up juggling. And that’s how my acting career began—I started juggling performances,” Dempsey jokes. “But I’ve always been a racer.”
The Emmy-winning star of Grey’s Anatomy—a two-time runner-up for People’s Sexiest Man Alive during his tenure as Dr. Derek Shepherd—has also appeared on stage and in the movies, including Sweet Home Alabama, Enchanted, and 2011’s Flypaper. Still, somehow he’s found time to build his racing company, Dempsey Racing, into a juggernaut on the international scene since he first drove the Pace Car at the Indy 500 in 2007. An avid collector of vintage and sports cars, Dempsey’s racing bug hit him hard. In 2014, he told Reuters, “It’s all-consuming in many ways. I couldn’t imagine not racing right now. It really keeps me motivated. It’s all I think about on a daily basis.”
The heir apparent to actor-racer Steve McQueen (whose film Le Mans chronicled his love affair with the 24 Hours), Dempsey first appeared in the 24 Hours in 2009, where he and his co-driver Patrick Long snagged a ninth-place GT2 finish. He has returned four times in the ensuing years (once driving the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, an updated edition of McQueen’s vehicle in Le Mans). Last year, Dempsey placed second in class, while also garnering a win in the Fuji round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Competitive racing and acting have a lot in common, it turns out. Both may seem like individual activities, with one star performer (or driver) running the show. But Dempsey, a veteran of both worlds, knows that teamwork is what makes a winner in any field. “While the focus so often is the performance of the car, in reality it is all the various personalities, from team mates to competitors to officials to fans that I remember the most. I have loved being part of part of different teams and sharing the experience with so many great friends.”
So how does he keep it all together? Says Dempsey of his breakneck-pace lifestyle, “It’s a matter of balance: family, career, and my passion [for racing}. I am so grateful to TAG Heuer for helping me realize my dreams.”
In recent years, those dreams have included his charitable organization supporting those with cancer. The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing opened its doors in 2008, and continues its race to a cure with all the determination of its founder.