Actor Patrick Dempsey expands car-racing effort in Monterey

Actor Patrick Dempsey plans to wade further into the deep end of motor racing Saturday at the 2.24-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track in Monterey, Calif.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” star is scheduled to co-drive one of his team’s cars in a six-hour endurance race sanctioned by the American Le Mans Series, which features different classes of race cars.

Dempsey, 46, for the first time will help drive an entry in the ALMS’ P2 class of exotic, powerful prototype cars built specifically for racing.

Previously he had raced GT cars, which are production vehicles such as Corvettes, BMWs, Mazdas and Ferraris that are modified for racing.

The P2 car “feels familiar but so much more intense -- the braking, the acceleration, cornering and power, it is all on a much more dynamic level than the GT cars I have driven,” Dempsey said in a statement.

Dempsey co-drove a GT car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 2009 (he also did a demonstration run in a Mazda 787B at Le Mans last year in the video above), and his Dempsey Racing team is eyeing a possible return to the famed endurance race in 2013.

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Actor Patrick Dempsey expands car-racing effort in Monterey