Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Tickets - Dempsey Races for Charity by Brent Warnken

The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is a two-day charity event to raise money for medically under-insured women with breast cancer, and despite the event being a race only in the sense of a 'race for a cure,' one national celebrity is taking the 'walk' to the extreme, dedicating 24 whole hours to the cause. Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey is known as McDreamy on his dramatic ABC television series, but this weekend he will be known as McRacy, as the Vision Racing co-owner is set to field his own Grand-Am Series team at the Rolex 24 At Daytona race, where he will be sporting the manly color pink in honor of fighting breast cancer.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona (conversationally known as 24 Hours of Daytona) is the motorsports event of the year that will kick off the international motorsports calendar for 2009, and actor-turned-sports car driver Patrick Dempsey will be one of the drivers on the track, sporting his pink-striped No. 40 Mazda RX-8 car and matching racing suit to signify his sponsor Avon. Dempsey will tackle the 24-hour race with his team of Joe Foster, Charles Espenlaub, Jep Thornton and a yet-undetermined fifth driver, competing in the GT class of the race.

This year's 2009 24 Hours of Daytona race marks the 47th anniversary of the event, and with motorsports tickets, all the action at the Daytona International Speedway can be experienced firsthand. The Daytona Beach, Florida racetrack is a 3.56-mile road course that hosts the sports car endurance race every year, and the Rolex Watch Co. has been the sponsor of the event ever since 1991, tacking its name onto the event and giving winners of each class a Rolex Cosmograph watch.

Last year, the Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates team of Dario Franchitti (Nashville, TN), Juan Pablo Montoya (Miami, FL), Scott Pruett (Auburn, CA) and Memo Rojas (Mexico) won the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at the Daytona International Speedway in their No. 1 Lexus Riley, while Patrick Dempsey's Rolex 24 At Daytona debut didn't go so well. After colliding with the pitwall in his team's No. 40 Mazda RX-8, Dempsey and Co. (Charles Espenlaub from Lutz, FL; Joe Foster from Atlanta, GA; Romeo Kapudija from Chicago, IL; and Scott Maxwell from Canada) came in at an overall 39th place finish.

While Patrick Dempsey is most known for his role as surgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, the actor's longtime amusement with motorsports has led to a co-ownership of Vision Racing (along with Tony and Laura George) and even a few appearances in races, as well. Aside from getting the chance to drive the pace car in the Indianapolis 500, Dempsey competed in his first official race in 2005 when he entered the famed Toyota Pro/Celebrity race in Long Beach, also competing that year in the Mazdaspeed Miata Cup and Panoz GT Racing Series. In 2006 and again in 2007, Dempsey started five times at KONI Challenge GS races, and the Lewiston, Maine native is now set to drive in his second 24 Hours of Daytona race this weekend. If you want to see McDreamy off the set of Grey's Anatomy, now's your chance with Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona tickets.

This article is sponsored by StubHub.com and was written by Jenna Jay. StubHub is a leader in the business of selling Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.

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