Dempsey Targeting 2015 WEC Program, Return to TUSC

Photo: John Dagys

While prospects of competing in select rounds of this year’s championship is growing increasingly unlikely, Dempsey Racing is now putting its focus towards a potential full-season program of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2015.

The Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster-owned squad, which recorded a 5th place class finish in last month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, had hopes of running the Circuit of The Americas round in September, among other end-of-year FIA WEC races.

However, Foster confirmed the Porsche 911 RSR that it used at Le Mans has been leased to ProSpeed Competition for the remainder of the season, due to deals not yet materializing on their end.

“The car we ran is going to be run by ProSpeed, which is fine. Rudi [Penders] and Chris Reid [Proton Competition owner] came to an agreement there, which is perfect,” Foster told Sportscar365.

“We may still do some WEC [this year], you never know, but I think the most likely scenario, with Patrick [Dempsey] adapting to a more aerodynamically dependent car at Le Mans this year, it might just be better to go testing to get more experience.”

Instead, Foster is already actively working towards next year, which could see the team take on the FIA WEC with the GTE-Am class Porsche 911 RSR.

“We’ve had meetings with Porsche last week in the U.S. and we’re having meetings with Porsche in Germany this week on what they want us to do in Europe next year,” Foster said.

“We still need to fish for more partners to make it happen, but you’ll hopefully see us involved in both Europe and the U.S.”

While there are considerations of a possible ELMS program, Foster said the majority of their marketing and media exchange with Porsche matches up with the globe-trotting championship.

A potential move to the FIA WEC, however, won’t detract from the team’s U.S. efforts, with a return to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship already in the plans, among the possibility of expansion of its customer efforts.

“We still plan on being a big part of the TUDOR Championship and we’d like to continue running GT3 Cup and in fact expand that program for next year,” Foster said. “We still have a multi-year relationship with Porsche that we’re very happy with.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John