Patrick Dempsey: Racing Le Mans

[Boorish Grobian]

I don't know how many of our merry lot have seen this yet, but its been airing on the Velocity Channel over here for the past few weeks.  Follows Dempsey Racing's stab at the ALMS and Le Mans last season.  It's okay, not spectacular. There's some really good, behind the scenes footage, and interviews with some familiar faces to CA and sportscar racing fans.  But Patrick, who may very well be a lovely guy, is really coming off as a whiney, narcissistic, celeb.  "Oh woe-is-me, I can't get enough seat time because of my Grey's Anatomy shooting, we purchased a car from a company that went tits-up, I have to attend this meet & greet with potential sponsors, etc."  If most of us were in his shoes you wouldn't be able to wipe the smile off our faces. but he's mostly pissing & moaning.
I give it a B- or C.
Fax

[Lazy B'stard]

What makes him different from any other racing driver? They all moan constantly about one thing or the other. Poor Kimi gets in a proper depression if he has to go to a function or product launch. These guys get paid a fortune to race cars and get to sleep with hot chicks for fecks sake. They really need a good slap once in a while to bring them back down to earth.

[Boorish Grobian]

Agreed LB, some of these guys could use a good kick in the goolies to bring them back to reality.  Problem is, and its as old as the sport itself, is that most of these guys come from entitled, pampered backgrounds, and have no concept of what its like to actually have a real job, and have to work to put food on the table.  There's a particularly laughable advert for Acorn Stairlifts that runs during Indycar races over here, where James Jakes (his daddy owns Acorn, and sponsors his car) hops out of his car, and runs to install a stairlift at a house.  During the filming of this commercial, I'm pretty damn certain someone had to show this kid how to hold a power drill, and which way to point it.
I had hoped I would find Dempsey likeable, but he comes across as just another douchebag celebrity-turned wannabe racing driver.
Fax

[Nordic]

Think it has become a job to some drivers, chasing money and the next drive could become just like us chasing the next project. Its a non ending treadmill.

I quite like Dempsey, putting (some) of his money up to live the dream is what we would all aspire to, when I have seen him at LM he does appear to have a good degree of respect to the punters and the history of the place, as paydrivers go, he is far from the worst I have seen.

TV programs can also focus on the negative as it creates drama, if it all went smoothly then the program would be pretty brief and maybe even boring.
 

[jimclark]

Paul Newman he's not, but I still can't say I don't like him... 

'Sat and had a beer with PLN many moons ago, haven't (and prolly won't since I don't git to as many races as I used to) had the chance with Patrick. 

[Boorish Grobian]

I watched most of the third episode last night.  The old footage they've shown of Newman, McQueen, and Garner are cool, but the constant comparisons aren't.  Patrick obviously thinks of himself as a later day McQueen, at one point during the first episode he's seen in his GA trailer with a copy of Keyser's A French Kiss With Death sitting on the table in front of him, and then in the recent episode he's desert racing at the Mint 400.  Like I said, he obviously wants to be perceived as a later day McQueen.
I think PLN did it right, he always kept his racing profile low, no big logos everywhere.  During his own racing days he mostly drove for Bob Sharp, and they deliberately kept things modest and understated.
Even when he did LM with Dick Barbour, he tried to keep as low a profile as he possibly could.
Dempsey has obviously taken a much more high visibility, public path, this show is proof.
LIke I said, he's doing to much whining for my taste.  He says "I don't want to be thought of as a actor who races, I want to be a racer who wins."  Well, walk away from your multi million dollar GA deal and prove it.  Until then your still a actor who races.  Its hard to have a bleeding heart for him when he's going on about the trials & tribulations of his team, and then hops in his vintage Mercedes convertible and drives off.
Fax

[jimclark]

Just an aside, if we're gonna include Garner as an actor/racer then we best not leave out Bonanza's "Hoss" and Adam, Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts.

[Boorish Grobian]

Gave a shot at watching the grand finale last night, their big moment at Le Mans.
Good fricking grief!  Early in the program, the narrator talks about how the celebrity pressure at Le Mans is not new, when Paul Newman raced there in 1972...Huh? Really, they f**ked this up?  Last time I checked PLN raced there in 1979, not seven years earlier.  I guess everyone who edited & watched this (including PD) managed to miss this blunder.
That mixed in with the archive footage of Le Mans, some of which is actually the Nurburgring made for serious credibility issues right from the start.  Then Dempsey, Foster & Long coming running out onto the grid like the three stooges, right in the middle of the playing of Le Marseillaise.  Thanks guys, look like some respectful Americans there... Christ! Even I had the decency to stand and remove my cap in respect.
At one point they show Patrick Long, at LM, explaining the instrumentation on the 911 GT3 to Patrick Dempsey, Seriously, this guy's getting ready to practice at Le Mans, and he doesn't fully understand how to operate his car? A car he drove at Sebring?  For a living I drive a Volvo tractor that has more complex instrumentation than that Porsche, and I've got to prove to the DOT, and my employer that I understand every inch, and every display on my vehicle before I can even think about going on the road with it, but this clown is getting ready to race on the Circuit de la Sarthe, and doesn't even know how to flash his headlights? Holy sh*t!
Couldn't watch anymore, deleted the rest.  Too amateurish for me.
Fax

[Fran]

Yummmm - Dr McDreamy!!

 

[Nordic]

Gave a shot at watching the grand finale last night, their big moment at Le Mans.
Good fricking grief!  Early in the program, the narrator talks about how the celebrity pressure at Le Mans is not new, when Paul Newman raced there in 1972...Huh? Really, they f**ked this up?  Last time I checked PLN raced there in 1979, not seven years earlier.  I guess everyone who edited & watched this (including PD) managed to miss this blunder.
That mixed in with the archive footage of Le Mans, some of which is actually the Nurburgring made for serious credibility issues right from the start.  Then Dempsey, Foster & Long coming running out onto the grid like the three stooges, right in the middle of the playing of Le Marseillaise.  Thanks guys, look like some respectful Americans there... Christ! Even I had the decency to stand and remove my cap in respect.
At one point they show Patrick Long, at LM, explaining the instrumentation on the 911 GT3 to Patrick Dempsey, Seriously, this guy's getting ready to practice at Le Mans, and he doesn't fully understand how to operate his car? A car he drove at Sebring?  For a living I drive a Volvo tractor that has more complex instrumentation than that Porsche, and I've got to prove to the DOT, and my employer that I understand every inch, and every display on my vehicle before I can even think about going on the road with it, but this clown is getting ready to race on the Circuit de la Sarthe, and doesn't even know how to flash his headlights? Holy sh*t!
Couldn't watch anymore, deleted the rest.  Too amateurish for me.

Fax

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on 'Rush'.........

Historical documentry it's not, and at times cringeworthy but it's a bit of fun.

[Boorish Grobian]

Yep Nordic, going to watch Rush with one eye shut.  The guys who do the F1 coverage for NBC over here were raving about it, but that could mean the kiss a death. I seem to remember the Indycar guys giiving positive reviews to that Stallone turkey "Driven" as well.
I'm hoping for Howard's attention to detail in a similar manner to Apollo 13, but Hollywood's take on the Hunt-Lauda rivalry could be intolerable.
Fax

[Nordic]

Some of it was very good, but others, well....

The crowd scenes, people hanging over armco in 76 for example struck me as poor. I think that had stopped by then.

The contrast between hunt and lauda well done. You will cringe however when lauda first tests the brm for example.

[jimclark]

'Haven't seen the flic yet, but Lauda "tests" the BRM??? In '76???

[Nordic]

No, the film briefly charts their rise thru F1. BRM was laudas first drive. The film makes a big play of the way he brought the drive.

[Boorish Grobian]

I'm assuming it would have been prior to the '73 season, which he drove for BRM.  Agreed, they put the kabosh on spectators hanging over the armco after the 1970 Mexico fiasco. Even at places like Interlogos, and Monza there was a decent amount of crowd control during the races (after the races ended was another matter).
I'm expecting a fair level of "creative license" to have been taken with this.
Actually '73 was Niki's second year in F1, having been paired with Ronnie at March in 1972.  But yes, both his drives in '72 & '73 were funded by his aunt, or uncle I believe.
Fax