Wednesday’s confirmation of actor/driver Patrick Dempsey’s full-season plans in the World Endurance Championship spoke to his expanded relationship with Porsche in 2015, yet made no mention of his domestic plans in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, or the activities planned for his Dempsey Racing team.

Dempsey Racing co-owner Joe Foster spoke with RACER and shed some light on where the Georgia-based program is headed while Dempsey concentrates on driving.

“Our season in GTD cost a lot more than what was projected, and I’m a big believer in sports car racing, but we reached the point where the sponsorship needed to continue was beyond the amounts that were being offered,” Foster said. “We had real, live sponsors this season, and people might assume Patrick pays for it all himself, but that’s not our business model, so we had to step back and assess where things were headed.”

If coming out of pocket to cover the additional costs was unexpected, struggling to find enough sponsorship to continue at the corrected budget level was an even bigger surprise, according to Foster.

“We came up with enough sponsorship for him to do the long races [next year], but that’s about it, so there were choices to be made,” he explained. “And it had nothing to do with not wanting to continue; we want to keep going, but at the level needed to be competitive, the funding just wasn’t there to cover everything. A lot of the teams in GTD are run without sponsorship – some use family backing, and that’s not how we do things.”

The sponsorship gap left Dempsey’s driving career at a crossroads and Foster evaluating Dempsey Racing’s options for 2015.

“Patrick and Porsche have come together on a new project, and looking at the difference between trying to find sponsors to meet the requirements for our GTD program and what was being offered to race in the WEC, it was hard to turn down. If you look at the experience we’ve had at Le Mans, he likes driving there, he likes the car, and the Porsche’s fun to drive. This is a good fit for him,” Foster added.

“Reading the tea leaves here, IMSA’s going through a transition in 2015 – GT3 cars are coming in 2016, we were in Porsches that won’t translate when that happens, so it’s a good year to not be in a GTD Porsche, to be smart with our resources, and work on our next steps.”

With the 2014 season over and no programs on the immediate horizon, Foster was forced to release Dempsey Racing’s faithful crew.

“I kept all of the guys abreast of where we were at, told them we’re working on making other programs happen, but that we didn’t have anything at the moment to keep everyone engaged,” he noted. “I hate having to lay off 10 of my best friends. It was important to us to close things on a dignified note, in a way that pays respect to the people who worked for us and our vendors, and get everything settled. Patrick and I wanted to make sure we did things the right way.”

Based on the funding Foster and Dempsey were able to secure for an IMSA program, contracting with another team stood out as the best business decision.

“Patrick will do the long races in the U.S., but it didn’t make sense to keep a full facility like ours up and running just to do three or four races, so it was my suggestion that he look to team up with people like the Snow family and John Wright and put more of a guest drive situation together,” Foster said.

“I’ve organized the sponsorship for him to do that, and I’ll be around, I’m still 50 percent owner in Dempsey Racing, but we looked at the situation from what’s best for the business, and for now, it’s best for Patrick to do what we’ve put together for him.”

Foster hopes to return with Dempsey Racing in IMSA’s Porsche GT3 Cup series next season, and says it could be a strong bridge program while they monitor GTD’s move to GT3-spec cars.

“We’ve been building a GT3 Cup car for a program there, which is great for us and we believe it will be something exciting for us and any drivers who are interested. That’s what I’m working on at the moment,” he noted.

“I don’t know if it will take off as we hope, but we’re working to make it happen. And Patrick and I could put something together for him after he’s done in the WEC. We’re still going and still planning. We’re open for business.”​