Patrick Dempsey has partnered with his American teammate Patrick Long to score his first FIA World Endurance Championship pole position at Circuit of The Americas today.

The Hollywood actor’s No.77 Porsche was fastest in the GTE-Am class thanks to a final lap from Long in qualifying of 2:06.374. The pole is Dempsey’s first in sports car competition.

FIA WEC qualifying features two drivers doing laps in the 20 minute session. The fastest lap of each driver is combined and averaged to set the grid order.

Dempsey and Long will drive with Marco Seefried in the three-driver line-up tomorrow.

“It is very satisfying to get our first pole here in the States and this series and this category,” Dempsey said.

“I’ve had such tremendous support from Porsche, all the drivers and everyone involved this year to get a lot of seat time. I’m fortunate to be next to Patrick and Marco. It is a tremendous honor and a pleasure to be up here amongst all these drivers in this series.

“It feels really nice”

Dempsey scored his first FIA WEC podium at the Le Mans 24 Hour this year when he finished third with Long and Seefried.

The result by Dempsey Proton Racing pushed the Aston Martin of Stuart Hall and Benny Simonsen off the pole position. Simonsen is making his FIA WEC debut this weekend – following in the footsteps his late brother Allan who was also a factory Aston Martin driver.

Aston Martin were able to prevail in the GTE-Pro class with Richie Stanaway and Fernando Rees taking the pole ahead of Nürburgring class winners Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen by 0.262 seconds.

Sportscar365.com spoke to Dempsey after today’s pole position result…..