Dempsey Racing Scores Second-Straight Season-Best Finish at The Glen with No. 41 FishingCapital.com/Bass 2 Billfish Mazda RX-8 GT
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (July 1, 2012) – Dempsey Racing scored a season-best race finish for the second week in a row and third time this year Sunday in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen where Charles Espenlaub, Charlie Putman and Scott Maxwell crossed the line in eighth place in the No. 41 FishingCapital.com/Bass 2 Billfish Mazda RX-8 GT.
Espenlaub and Putman also drove the No. 41 to an eighth-place showing two weekends ago at Road America in addition to finishing in the same position for the first time this season at Baber Motorsports Park in March.
“I am so proud of everybody on the team, they have worked their butts off, everybody at Dempsey Racing in every position has done over and above what they could do to try and always get us a better car and an even better result,” Espenlaub said. “It’s a little emotional because we deserve better results for the work they are putting in and I think we will get it for them. The car is better and better every weekend and I look forward to the rest of the season.”
Dempsey Racing’s sister No. 40 VISIT FLORIDA Mazda RX-8 GT, driven by Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Tom Long, ran on pace with their teammates for more than half of the six-hour race. A pair of Dempsey Racing top-10 finishes seemed likely for the third straight race but the No. 40 was hampered by a late exhaust-system issue and lost several laps behind the wall for repairs. Undeterred, the No. 40 rejoined the race repaired and on pace and Dempsey, Foster and Long were able to salvage a 16th place result at the finish.
“The crew did a great job this weekend,” Dempsey said. “We had a post-race debrief with the crew and we are really happy with everything they have done. The character of the team and what everybody is doing here is really, really important, and we are really proud of the guys. We had some adversity today with the exhaust, they bounced back, and the crew is just really good. The 41 car did great and I think we would have been right there with them.”
In addition to his close-knit racing team, Dempsey enjoys the unique camaraderie of sports car racing in total.
“You have to love the camaraderie,” Dempsey said. “A lot of the guys from the other teams stopped by after the race, you really want to try to take care of them when you are out there and it is always great seeing them when we are not racing. And that’s what this sport is about, it’s endurance racing but it is also about endurance in your life, on and off the track.”
Next up for Dempsey Racing and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is testing with the team’s Mazda RX-8 GT program this Friday and Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in preparation for the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix, Friday, July 27, during Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard. Dempsey Racing also returns to American Le Mans Series (ALMS) competition next weekend at Lime Rock Park where Dempsey and Foster will co-drive the No. 27 Trina Solar/GNC Beverages/Motegi Racing/Dempsey Racing Lola-Judd in the P2 class.
About Dempsey Racing
A fulltime and year-round enterprise, Dempsey Racing (www.dempseyracing.net) is a professional sports car auto racing team based in the greater Atlanta area in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Owned by actor/driver Patrick Dempsey, the team races in support of the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing (www.dempseycenter.org) in Dempsey’s hometown of Lewiston, Maine, and the Team Seattle Guild (www.teamseattle.com) to benefit the Seattle Children’s Hospital Heart Center (www.seattlechildrens.org).
About Dempsey Racing’s Partners
Dempsey Racing (www.dempseyracing.net) is an official Mazda (www.mazdausa.com) racing team and has competed exclusively in Mazda RX-8 GTs in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series since 2007. A primary partner for the Mazda program is VISIT FLORIDA (www.VISITFLORIDA.com), the official tourism marketing corporation for the State of Florida, and its www.ShareaLittleSunshine.org and www.FishingCapital.com promotional programs, and the television show Bass 2 Billfish with Peter Miller. Additional Dempsey Racing partners include Trina Solar (www.trinasolar.com), a leading manufacturer of high-quality solar photovoltaic (PV) modules that deliver reliable, environmentally-friendly power to homes and businesses and value to customers, and Specialized Bicycle Components (www.specialized.com), a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of technically advanced bicycles and related components. New partners for 2012 include GNC Beverages (www.drinkGNC.com), built upon the 75 years of nutrition innovation from the leader in sports nutrition, Motegi Racing (www.motegiracing.com), a leading manufacturer of competition and high-performance tuning wheels designed and engineered for performance, and Silicon Tech Racing (www.silicontechracing.com) which provides high-tech corporations a dedicated marketing platform through sports car road racing focused on technology executives.