In  class normally dominated by Porsches, Ferrari showed its motorsports might at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend. Not only did Ferrari claim the top spot on the podium, it claimed all the others. As a matter of fact, Ferraris clinched nine of the top ten GT2 Class spots with position number five going to the Spkyer C8 Laviolette GT2R driven by Jarek Janis, Tom Coronel and Jeroen Bleekemolen.

The GT2 Class win went to car No. 82 F430 GT of the Risi Competizione Team driven by Jaime Melo, Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer after completing 328 laps. This is the second year in a row a Risi Competizione car has won its class at Le Mans. The second Risi car, driven by Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and Eric van de Poele finished third. Between them was the BMS Scuderia Italia’s Ferrari with Fabio Babini, Matteo Malucelli and Paolo Ruberti at the wheel. The fourth position also belonged to Ferrari with British team JMW Motorsport and drivers Robert Bell, Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Sugden driving.

“I’m proud of this wonderful result. Four cars from Ferrari on the first four places in such a prestigious race is a great satisfaction and I want to congratulate the teams on the result; the teams have worked so hard to prepare the best way possible for this race. I especially want to thank Giuseppe Risi, who with his team has gained the second success in a row,” Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa said. “It was a tough race, especially at the beginning when the cars from Ferrari had to fight against very strong competitors like the Porsches. When night fell Risi’s car took over the lead and didn’t cede. I’m especially pleased by the fact that nine out of ten F430 GT which started into the race crossed the line; this is not only a sign of competitiveness, but also of the car’s great reliability.”

As mentioned, Ferraris then rounded out the top ten, with actor Patrick Dempsey piloting the Advanced Engineering car to a ninth-place finish with the help of co-drivers Joe Foster and Don Jr Kitch.

News has just surfaced that Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey (aka McDreamy), will race at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ferrari F430 GT race car.

Dempsey will race alongside co-drivers Don Kitch Jr. and 2008 Gran Am Koni Challenge Champion Joe Foster under the team name Team Seattle. The Ferrari race car will be prepared bu Advanced Engineering.

Team Seattle, which was founded by Kitch, has been operating for 12 years, working to create awareness and support of Seattle’s Children’s Hospital.

Dempsey, it should be noted, is not new to racing, having competed in the 2008 Grand Am Rolex Sports Car series with Hypersport Engineering in a Mazda RX-8. Dempsey will continue to be involved in the 2009 season as he purchased Hypersport Engineering, which will now run under the banner of Dempsey Racing.

When asked about his Le Mans effort, Dempsey had this to say: “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.”

Kitch was eager to show his appreciation to Dempsey and commented that, “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 loved what we were doing and wanted to help in any way he could.”

The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place on June 13-14.

[Source: ColdTrackDays]