TV Star Patrick Dempsey, a well known amateur sports car racer, helped raise $60,000 for the Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Dempsey Center for Cancer, Hope & Healing at an event at a Seattle race track Tuesday.

In exchange for a $1000 donation, patrons were treated to laps in one of four Ferraris, donated by Ferrari of Seattle and Ferrari North America. The cars were piloted by Grand-Am Series drivers Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, James Gue and Don Kitch Jr. Also in attendance was Garth Stein, a former Spec Miata racer and author of the best-selling novel The Art of Racing in the Rain.

Dempsey, along with Team Seattle, a group of racers who support the Seattle Children’s Hospital, have helped raise $435,000 for the hospital in 2010. Their overall goal is $500,000 this year.

[Source:  Team Seattle]

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]