February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
And so far, he’s on course to do just that. He’s leading the hugely competitive Star Mazda Championship on points, an important entry-level pro circuit in the United States.
If he’s still at the top of the table come the end of the 13th race on Oct. 10, he will have raised his profile considerably in that very expensive and challenging sport. And he’ll have won a scholarship year to compete in the Mazda Atlantic in 2010.
“It’s a chance of a lifetime for me,” said Dempsey who grew up in and still lives in Ashbourne, Co. Meath.
After he’d struggled to get sponsorship earlier this season, and even sat out crucial test days due to lack of funds, his team, Juncos Racing, decided to employ him directly.
“Normally a driver would bring sponsorship to a team, but I’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “The team saw how well I was doing, and they’ve given me a free drive as such to compete for the rest of the season to try to win the championship for their team.”
So far, the strategy is working. Dempsey won all three races in July – the first at Iowa Speedway and then two at Autobahn Chicago. He competes next Sunday at Trois-Rivieres in Quebec, as part of a two-race swing north of the border. The last two races will be in Braselton. Ga., and Monterey, Calif.
He was disappointed with his 3rd-place finish in the 2008 championship, having been seriously in contention at one stage.
“I just have to stay focused. Take it race by race,” Dempsey said. “I got a little bit carried away last year. I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen this time.”
He’s learnt that consistency, notching up 2nd and 3rd podium places as well as wins, is hugely important.
Whatever happens, Dempsey, who has been around racing cars since he was a 6-year-old, knows he could easily find a role in the engineering side of the sport. His father, who raced in the 1970s and early 1980s and later formed his own Meath-based team Cliff Dempsey Racing, always encouraged his two sons’ interest in cars. Keith Dempsey showed early promise, becoming at 16 the youngest ever Ford Opel champion, while Peter Dempsey, younger by almost three years, always followed closely in his footsteps.
The Mullingar, Co. Westmeath-born Cliff Dempsey decided to give his younger son his first taste of motorsport in a go-kart in County Cork at age 7. The boy completed two laps successfully, but flipped over on the third lap when he tried to take back the lead on a bend from a faster kart that had passed him. Remarkably, when his father allowed him at age 14 to drive his first single-seater racecar at a test in Kirkistown in Northern Ireland, virtually the same thing happened: he had two successful laps before crashing on the third.
Dempsey can recall spending countless childhood hours with his older brother driving a Subaru Justy 4×4 around a D-shaped track in the middle of a field. However their mother Michelle, who is also from Mullingar and oversees the administration of Cliff Dempsey Racing, made sure that the boys didn’t neglect their education.
Peter Dempsey eventually came out from under his older brother’s shadow, showing his talent for speed at events at home and abroad. By age 20, he was winning three out of every four races in which he competed.
Star Mazda is an attractive next stage for any talented young driver, which is why there are often 40 cars in its races. Dempsey and the others in the category are fully conscious of the fact that Scott Speed, who in 2006 became the first American in more than a decade to compete in Formula One, made the championship a stepping-stone in his career.
“They have a whole ladder system [in the U.S.], which, depending on your results, guides you to the top of the sport,” Dempsey said.
His main rivals for the 2009 Star Mazda title are the second-placed Adam Christodoulou from England and Conor Daly, son of the Irish-born former Indy and Formula One driver Derek Daly, who is in third.
Dempsey’s primary goal is to compete at the Indy level, although his heroes are Formula One drivers Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine and the late Aryton Senna.
“I try to take the best from each one and put it into practice, but it’s always very difficult,” he said.
Dempsey said that “attitude inside the car and outside the car” is very important. “A lot of teams take notice of that,” he said.
The young Irish driver, whose younger sister Emma is content to remain a spectator and whose brother has retired from competitive racing, said the support of his family means a great deal to him.
But his regular two-month periods away from home and travel generally don’t pose any problems.
“I absolutely love it. It’s very easy to travel when you’re doing something you’re very passionate about,” he said.
Airport layovers of six or seven hours mean nothing, Dempsey added.
“The end of the journey is worth every moment of it,” he said.