Dempsey Racing principal Patrick Dempsey announced today that his team will support experienced Grand-Am Rolex 24 Hour competitor Team Seattle in their first international campaign at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans in France this June 13-14. In addition to regular competition in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with its Mazda RX-8 GT, Dempsey Racing seeks to support the Team Seattle project and their 12 year long effort to use professional sports car racing as a focal point to generate support for the ground-breaking work of Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Actor and racer Patrick Dempsey notes “while we remain 100% committed to our Mazda-powered Rolex Series program this opportunity to ally with Team Seattle and enhance its efforts to drive funding to Seattle Children’s Hospital and their Team France partner is an opportunity that Dempsey Racing is honored to accept.”
Team Seattle will enter the French classic in a Ferrari 430 GT prepared by multiple FIA GT Championship winning team Advanced Engineering from its Milan-area base in Italy. Dempsey intends to pilot the machine with experienced sports car racer and instructor Don Kitch, Jr. along with 2008 Grand-Am Koni Challenge Champion Joe Foster.
Team Seattle founder and driver Don Kitch, Jr. comments “I am absolutely elated to have Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster supporting Team Seattle. In and out of the car, these two will make excellent teammates. Patrick is by no means new to the Team Seattle campaign as he has been very supportive of the effort since we first met at the Daytona 24 Hour, he commented then that he loved what we were doing and wanted to help in any way he could.”
Team Seattle benefits cardiac intensive care at Seattle Children’s Hospital and races to help advance treatment for critically ill children with heart disease. Consistently ranked as one of the best children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Children’s serves as the pediatric and adolescent academic medical referral center for the largest landmass of any children’s hospital in the country (Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho). For more than 100 years, Children’s has been delivering superior patient care and advancing new treatments through pediatric research.
Unique to the Team Seattle effort for 2009 is its international partnership with Team France. Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaque Enfant du Monde is an organization dedicated to providing cardiac care for disadvantaged children suffering from heart disease. Whenever children, no matter where in the world they are, cannot receive the appropriate medical assistance in their country of origin, this Paris-based organization takes care of them by financing their operations and their stays in France.
Source : Dempsey Racing/Team Seattle