Patrick Dempsey to Race a Mazda3 in the Long Beach GP

Although he normally races a Mazda RX-8 in the Rolex Grand-Am GT series, actor Patrick Dempsey will also get behind the wheel of a 2010 Mazda3 prepared by Tri-Point Motorsports in mid-April. Dempsey will compete in the World Challenge race during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend to support no cost cancer treatment.

The World Challenge will take place on April 18, and is part of several events Mazda will participate at Long Beach that weekend, including a American Le Mans Series race.

Dempsey will be racing against over two dozen other professional drivers in cars ranging from Porsches, Corvettes, Vipers, Acuras, to Scions. The Tri-Point MAZDA3 will compete in the GTS class.

"I'm thrilled to be able to race near my Los Angeles home,” Dempsey said. ”With the Grand-Am series, I've been able to race at many of the great tracks in North America, but now I have a chance to race locally.  The Tri-Point MAZDA3 really impressed me during testing.  I've never driven a front-wheel drive racecar that handled that well before.  I shouldn't have been surprised though as my daily driver is a MAZDASPEED3.  The weekend will also be personally rewarding to me as we'll be carrying the colors of our Dempsey Challenge."

The Dempsey Challenge is a non-competitive fundraising event for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center. The 2010 event will take place October 2 - 3 in Lewiston, Maine.