LEEDS – Patrick Dempsey, who plays Derek Shepherd on the television show “Grey’s Anatomy,” will be at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds this weekend pursuing his pastime of racing. To say Dempsey squeezes in racing around his demanding filming schedule could be an understatement.
“I worked until 12:30 last night and then got on the plane,” Dempsey said Friday. “I flew all night and then jumped in the car as soon as I got here.”
Dempsey and Joe Foster will share driving duties in the Mazda RX-8 for Hyper Sport in the Porsche 250 race on Sunday. The two were 20th quickest in the first practice session at Barber on Friday, but dropped to 33rd of 39 in the second practice.
Dempsey had a surprise visitor during his interview with the media on Friday. When he raced at Barber last year, Dempsey took time out of his race schedule to visit with Addison Sewell at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. Sewell was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia three days after her 14th birthday.
The actor visited Sewell in the hospital and brought her things from the track a year ago. In return Sewell gave Dempsey an orange plastic wristband with the words “stay strong” printed on it. He wore the wristband on a few of the episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Fast forward one year and Sewell, who is now in remission, surprised Dempsey at the track on Friday. The actor didn’t even see her when he first came into the media center.
“I didn’t recognize her; she’s grown so much,” Dempsey said.
The 42-year-old also helped build a cancer center in his home state of Maine several years ago after his mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. While the teenager wasn’t very talkative, Dempsey said Sewell would most likely take a trip out to the set of “Grey’s Anatomy” at some point in the next few months.
As for racing at Barber, Dempsey said he’s always happy to come back to the 2.3-mile course.
“This is a great track,” he said. “It’s a great venue for fans to come out and check out a race.”
When asked what he likes better, acting or racing, Dempsey didn’t pause before answering “racing.”
“You know if you’re good on the track,” he said. “(Acting) pays for this job.”
As for the track during practice, Dempsey said the course was very slick.
“There was no grip today,” he said. “We had no grip, but it was a lot of fun though.”
Dempsey and his teammate Foster will try to drive their car to the win in the Porsche 250, which begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
