A scheduling coincidence: while Derek Shepherd, his character on the series "Grey's Anatomy," bid adieu to American television in early May, the man who used to play him moved forward with his life as a gentleman-driver. With the able support of Proton Competition, an expert on the Porsche 911, all season long Patrick Dempsey and his teamates Patrick Long and Marco Seefried fought for a spot in the top 5 in the LM GTE Am class of the 2015 World Endurance Championship.

At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, third place in the class morphed into the second step on the podium with less than an hour from the finish, after Aston Martin's incident while it was the solid leader in the class. An emotional Patrick Dempsey spoke of a dream coming true...but the best was yet to come: at a race hampered by tenuous weather conditions, he passed under the checkered flag as the LM GTE Am winner at the 6 Hours of Fuji, sixth round of the season. Absent at the closing round in Bahrain, he finished sixth in the FIA Endurance Drivers Trophy in the class, while his team Dempsey-Proton Racing scored a fourth place final...with a surprising stat: if one counts the fact the Corvette that won in the LM GTE Pro class at Le Mans was ineligible to score points (the factory Corvette team only competed at the 24 Hours and only raced full-time in the U.S.), Dempsey and his team mate Patrick Long are the only Americans drivers to have clinched a win in the 2015 World Endurance Championship!

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, TUESDAY JUNE 9 2015, DRIVERS' AUTOGRAPH SESSION. Patrick Dempsey had a busy season: in addition to his second place finish at Le Mans and his win at Fuji, at the end of May he gave the start at the Indianapolis 500, the oldest circuit auto race in the world.