Patrick Dempsey Taking to Le Mans

Peter Egan once said that “racing makes a heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty,” and he was right. Anyone that’s turned a wheel on a closed course can vouch for its addictiveness, and if there’s any class of person that’s addicted to addictions, its celebrities. But while Paris Hilton may be addicted to producing tragically bad TV shows and Lindsay Lohan’s addictions probably span a breadth of illegal substances that would exhaust this website's maximum allowable size, there’s one celebrity with an addiction we can understand: Patrick Dempsey.

The star of Grey’s Anatomy and the subject of a great many feminine desires, Dempsey has announced that he’ll compete in the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans. Having already cut his teeth at the Daytona 24 hour endurance race and the Baja 1000, Dempsey follows in the footsteps of Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, both of whom enjoyed quite a bit of success (unlike Frankie Muniz). Competing in an Advanced Engineering-prepared Ferrari F430, Dempsey will partner with Joe Foster; last year’s Grand Am Koni Challenge champ. With Foster co-driving and Advanced Engineering providing the car (they’ve won GT2 category in the FIA GT) it looks like Dempsey and Team Seattle might just have a decent shot at it!