The No. 77 Porsche 911 RSR of Dempsey-Proton Racing, by winning the GTE-Am class at the 6 Hours of Fuji, made history.
Hollywood actor/sports car racing driver Patrick Dempsey was at the wheel of the car in the closing minutes of the sixth round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season, earning the first win of his 10-year sports car racing career.
In order to meet his minimum required time behind the wheel in the race, Dempsey climbed into the No. 77 Porsche for the final 20 minutes of the race at Fuji and was able to hold off Paul Dalla Lana of the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage V8, beating them to the line by a margin of 17.10 seconds to take the car's first ever FIA WEC class victory.
Dempsey initially stepped into the Dempsey-Proton entry to replace Patrick Long who had been at the wheel of the car during the 40-minute full-course caution period that was run behind the safety car and ate up the opening 40 minutes of the six-hour event. After Dempsey's stint when the race finally went green and track conditions improved substantially, Marco Seefried took the wheel of the car and placed it in the class lead in the final hour of the opening half of the race, stretching the No. 77 Porsche's lead out to a full lap with the help of a quadruple stint on a single set of Michelin intermediate tires.
A late-race penalty issued to the No. 98 Aston Martin of Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda secured the victory for the Dempsey-Proton crew, as the No. 83 Ferrari F458 Italia of AF Corse completed the GTE-Am class podium.
After a podium finish at June's 24 Hours of Le Mans and a pole position at the round at Circuit of The Americas for the No. 77 Porsche of Dempsey, Long and Seefried, Sunday's win at Fuji marks Dempsey's first ever in his 10-year sports car racing career.
Next up for the FIA World Endurance Championship is the 6 Hours of Shanghai, set to go green on November 1.