Dempsey Racing Porsche Accepted for 91st 24 Hours of Le Mans

With the memory of last year’s race-leading and career-best fourth-place finish still fresh in all of their minds, Dempsey Racing, and team principals and drivers Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster, took their first step this past Thursday in returning to this June’s 91st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans when it was announced in Paris that the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has been accepted by the Selection Committee of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) as an entry in the GTE-Am class.

The Dempsey team once again takes up the challenge of the classic French endurance race in partnership with top German Porsche racing team Proton Competition, and the No. 77 was officially entered as Dempsey Racing-Proton.

In last year’s 90th Anniversary running of the Le Mans race, Dempsey, Foster and American factory Porsche driver, Patrick Long, battled for the GTE-Am class win throughout the race, and Dempsey led his first race laps on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe. The eventual fourth-place finish was a race career-best result for both Dempsey and Foster in their second Le Mans appearance following a ninth-place GT2 class finish in their 2009 debuts.

“We are honored to have been invited back to Le Mans, it is an amazing, larger than life event and the wonderful fans in France and the incredible support from the ACO always make this race a pleasure," Dempsey said. “It is an honor but also a somewhat humbling and certainly daunting task to now have to actually put all of the pieces in place to be able to race at Le Mans just four months from now, but we are up to the challenge."

Dempsey is running the 2014 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season in North America with fulltime co-driver Andrew Davis, with Foster joining the duo for the stateside endurance events. The team is in the first of a two-year brand and promotional partnership with Porsche AG and is looking forward to a return visit to Le Mans with its successful German partner Proton Competition and the new Type 991-based Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

“Patrick and I are both grateful to Porsche that has provided a foundation on which we can build," Foster said. “We are working diligently to finish putting the partners in place to return to Le Mans in June and contend for the GTE-Am victory. We have often said that it takes more than a full year to adequately prepare for Le Mans for any given year, but we don’t have that luxury this time around. Fortunately, having the familiarity and support with Porsche and Proton is a huge benefit and we have to approach this year’s race from a new level of experience and attention to detail, both from a marketing and competition perspective."

The team’s third pilot of the No. 77 has yet to be named but should be announced within the next few weeks. Patrick Long joined Dempsey in leading at Le Mans last year while his fellow Porsche factory colleague, and LMP1 Porsche hybrid driver, Marc Lieb joined Dempsey, Davis and Foster at last month’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Next up for Dempsey Racing is the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, March 13 – 15, at Sebring International Raceway.