Comes on a Familiar Track for Two-Car Tullys Coffee Porsche 911 GT3 TeamPatrick Dempsey, Andy Lally, Joe Foster, Michael Avenatti and Andrew Davis to Run First Monterey Race Under Dempsey Del Piero Racing/Tullys Coffee Banner but Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca More Than FamiliarMONTEREY, Calif. (May 9, 2013)Dempsey Del Piero Racing, and drivers Patrick Dempsey, Andy Lally, Joe Foster, Michael Avenatti and Andrew Davis, will make their team debut on a more than familiar track this weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with its pair of GTC class Tullys Coffee Porsche 911 GT3s in Saturdays American Le Mans Monterey.Dempsey Del Piero Racing is a new international sports car racing team established by Dempsey, the popular actor/race car driver, and Italian soccer superstar Alessandro Del Piero. The team is running the full American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GTC season with Dempsey and Lally co-driving the No. 27 Tullys Coffee Porsche 911 GT3 and Avenatti and Davis sharing the sister No. 10 Tullys Coffee Porsche 911 GT3. Foster, Dempseys longtime co-driver and motorsports business partner, may also be added to the No. 27 driver roster as he was in the years opening pair of races.The American Le Mans Monterey is the third round of the 2013 American Le Mans Series. Race coverage on ESPN2 begins at 4 p.m. EDT this Sunday, May 12, with live coverage available on ESPN3 starting at 6:15 p.m. EDT/3:15 p.m. PDT on Saturday, May 11.The No. 27 Tuly's team has opened the season solidly with a pair of sixth-place showings at the 12 Hours of Sebring and last month on the streets of Long Beach. An even better result could be in the cards this weekend as Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a track Dempsey and his teammates know very well.
I am really excited to be back up here, Dempsey said. This is a great track, it has a wonderful rhythm to it, great history and Carmel is a great place to stay. A lot of fans show up for this race, which is really good, and we debuted last year here with our P2 car, so it has been our first official full year in the American Le Mans Series.
Along with Foster, Dempsey anchored last years ALMS series debut in the teams Lola-Judd P2 but that wasnt his most recent time taking laps around the Monterey track. Dempsey participated in yesterdays test session in an IMSA GT3 Cup Porsche 911 GT3 prepared by Competition Motorsports and Bob Faieta, another team driver in the Dempsey Del Piero/Tullys Coffee stable.
I got some testing, a little bit in a GT3 Cup car yesterday that Bobby set up for us and made possible, Dempsey said. It was really nice and I got two 40 minute sessions in, had some data to review and a chance to see where we are, and I am pretty optimistic for the weekend. I had just one set of tires and got a sense for what it is going to be like in the race when the tires fall off. It was just more seat time, which is always great because we are not going to get a lot of track time the next two days.
Faieta joined Avenatti and Davis at the wheel of the No. 10 at the Sebring opener and also filled in for Davis at Long Beach. Davis and Lally were both racing in the Road Atlanta GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series event in Georgia during the Long Beach weekend but are back with the Tullys team this weekend.
"After missing the last event at Long Beach, I am very eager to get back to my teammates at Dempsey Del Piero Racing, Davis said. As a new unit, we are just now starting to realize our potential with this program. I feel that this event at Laguna Seca will be a big turning point for our team."
The No. 10 ran competitively at both Sebring and Long Beach only to be hit by overzealous competitors in both races. The Sebring contact robbed the team of a possible podium and likely certain top five finish while the Long Beach incident was so early in the race that the car was sidelined before Faieta could even drive."The first two races of the season have seen some unique circuits with the intricacies of Sebring followed by the tight streets of Long Beach, Davis said. Now we get to stretch the legs on our No. 10 Dempsey Del Piero Racing Porsche 911 GT3 and push the limits on a permanent road course. Laguna Seca is one of the premier road course circuits in North America, and I am always excited to put a Porsche to the ultimate test around the challenging track. The circuit has a great combination of elevation, sweeping corners, heavy braking zones and high speeds, all of which suit our Porsche 911 perfectly."
The American Le Mans Monterey schedule begins this evening with unofficial promoter testing. Friday includes practice and qualifying while race-day Saturday begins with a warm-up between 9:4010:05 a.m. PDT. The four-hour American Le Mans Monterey begins at 3:30 p.m. PDT later that afternoon.About Dempsey/Del Piero Racing: A fulltime and year-round enterprise supported by Tullys Coffee, Dempsey Del Piero Racing is a professional international sports car auto racing team with operational bases in both Los Angeles and Atlanta in the United States.
