he ran in grand am i think it was 2 years ago ,with a mazda, with joe foster, etc.
THen they nibbled in the protoptype throughout the year.
and then for this year, he's running 1 or 2 GTC cars in alms, no longer doing the mazda at all , so he's out of Grand am if im not mistaken.

he's just having fun, trying different things. his celebrity status helps big time to probably bring in some sponsorship money thought not sure why he'd need too much of that other than just convenience. a few episodes of grace anatomy and he's got an entire season covered. but its part of building a team.

i've met the guy at two races, met him a dinner again once. as nice and smart of a guy as you'd like, and he does a terrific job with the fanfare and coping with being the guy in the paddoc. when we were at ALMS WC running the cayman in the WC race a few weeks ago, when it was autograph hour for the alms teams, my son and i went strolling through the paddock. there were 4,5,6 people at some of the team trailers for autographs. for some, there were no people lined up. the long lines were a) in front of the falken tire truck because thye had two absolutely hot models there doing the signing!!<G>, b) in front of team chevy with jan mag, and milner, etc. because who dont love a corvette, and whatever was at all of those was about 30% of what dempsey had lined up in front of his. it was a mob scene. and he just hung out and signed and was shooting the breeze.

i like the dude. he's a car guy like the rest of us.

 

Use to be. He sold it a couple yrs ago as it was advertised on RList as his DD. however when I got mine I reminded my wife that Dempsey drove the same car...

I liked the show and I've followed his career since he appeared in Pro races. Car guy through and through although I do feel that he came off a bit like an *** with the sponsor. However that is just a glimpse of what his life is so its not fair of me to pass judgement on an edited show.

 

I have met him a couple of times. If you treat him as a racer he will talk forever, as soon as you treat him as a Hollywood star, he retreats.
Great car and Porsche guy! I enjoyed the first show very much!

 

You have to appreciate that despite the fact that he could easily be "that guy" he is putting in the effort in working on his skills and not just buying a ride. I never had a similar feeling about guys like Seth Neiman but that might be the contrast with the pro drivers in the same car. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

 

Seems like a great guy with not enough time or $$!

 

The second episode was better than the first. In the 1st episode, I was put off a little by his casual flippancy at the sponsor event. Even if things were going bad for the sponsor and he wanted to enjoy himself rather than be "that guy" at the microphone, he should've been a little more "on" out of respect to the folks writing big checks. I was also put off by the comparison and references to Newman, Garner, and McQueen. Let's not put ourselves in that company just yet, in either vocation. I think right now (in the episode's time), Jason Priestley might be a more apt comparison for Dempsey in terms of stature. I'd also love to see a 30 for 30 type of treatment for Newman, Garner, McQueen, and Dean.

Episode two cranked up the drama. It was mostly agony for the team as, despite Dempsey's celebrity, his small team dealt with the usual problems of practice time, money, and results. I'll try not to spoil it here, but let's just say I stayed up too late finishing the episode and look forward to the next episode. The behind the scenes and paddock coverage is excellent, because it's not usually covered this way.

Spoilers, highlight to view:
I can't help but connect his casual handling of the sponsor from Ep1 with the sponsor problems in Ep2. Maybe "carma," but very cruel nonetheless. And good for him that he seems committed to not filling the sponsorship shortfall with his own money. It must have been brutal to not take that way out to save the season and save jobs. The team's unrelenting string of bad luck was tough to watch.

 

I'm surprised to see such a positive reaction here.

Most of my friends complained about how it was primarily about Dempsey crying about how hard it is to find sponsors. They said that the whole show seems a sponsorship gimmick- he can easily afford to pay for his racing like most of us do, we who have NO CHANCE of getting sponsors like he does, as we are not famous and idols to the opposite sex. When I do an IMSA race, it takes months of my income to cover it. Many feel that he should either pay for his racing, accept that sponsorship is very limited even though he has it easier than other drivers, or get fast enough to get paid for racing, like Patrick Long, etc.

A quote from a friend:

"... To come up 90k short and skip VIR. Why not reach into his pocket to pay that? Dempsey makes $350k every week for 24 weeks a year PLUS anything outside Grey's Anatomy. A WEEK. "

Just another viewpoint.

 

Good point Mike, I thought the same thing.

But then all rich people can race in pretty much anything they want as much as they want.
If he wants to be / play real race car driver life, isn't the part of the experience performing in the race by talent and persistence on track, as well as off track by assembling the best team around you through the best sponsorship possible?

If you can get it done without reaching into your own pocket it is that much more real / rewarding.
Maybe that is part of the series too, he wants to show he's keeping it as real as possible? Maybe that is what he's trying to prove?

Of course he will always have the celebrity advantage anyway, but maybe this is keeping it as real as it is going to get for him.

Guys of that status live bullcrap, lots of people feed their ego for money I imagine.

 

I can understand that viewpoint, and believe me, if I could easily stroke a check to race another weekend and keep my friends employed, I'd be tempted to do so. I also don't think I'd have the discipline to choose what he did. But I understand that for those who are also scrounging for sponsors, his problems are hard to cry over. We are talking about keeping a P2 team going after all.

I'm not in his head, but I think he desperately wants to earn his place in racing, by racing. It's clear he wants to be accepted by racers as a racer, and buying his way in like a dilettante won't help. I think for the actor, it's important that he be a racer, not just play racer.

That being said, there's always an arbitrary line drawn. Dempsey started racing 7 years ago and just went to Le Mans? C'mon. Even if he didn't put his own money in (which I doubt, I bet he seeded it pretty heftily at the onset), he got where people spend their entire lives never getting to with the aid of money to pay for practice, gear, support, etc. And, he freely admits that his celebrity attracts sponsors and doesn't bemoan it. No doubt, this show will help him get additional sponsors. Of course, he's also got disadvantages that others don't have, such as extreme limitations on practice time because of his day job. I appreciate that wherever he drew this arbitrary line, he seemed to stick to it when the chips were down instead of taking the easy way out.

That's probably part of the story line: There is no where to hide on the race track, and the car doesn't care who you are.

Also, like many of us, Dempsey has a wife he must answer to. She seems very understanding so far.

 

I actually like the fact that he doesn't just write the check, and runs the team like a business.. While I'm sure both he and Joe have a good bit of cash sunk into the team, going about it this way shows the desire not to be seen as a 'celebrity' driver...

 

Watched the whole series. It was good. Wonder if he will do it again.

 

I watched the whole thing and dug it. If anyone was interested and missed all or part of it, Velocity is doing a marathon of all 4 on Sunday starting at 2pm (pst, i think)

I was at Le Mans this year. There was a lot of buzz about whether he was just playing racer or was a racer. By the end of the weekend, everyone from Radio Le Mans to other teams to fans was saying he is the real deal. Jens comment to him at the end of episode 4 have to have been the greatest feeling for him.

 

My recollection is he raced at Le Mans a couple of years ago when he was racing the Mazda. Accordingly the discussion about whether he would do OK at Le Mans, etc was more for theatrical effect than was necessarily the case, I would bet

 

Nope, he's never done Le Mans before this year. Maybe you're thinking of the Daytona 24 which he ran in his Grand Am RX8 in 2010-2011?

 

Dempsey is listed in 2009 as being on a Ferrari team that finished 30th
You can look it up.