Patrick Dempsey Racing at Lime Rock Park July 7! ALMS Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park July 7 Entered: Hollywood’s Patrick Dempsey; Westport-based CEO; Indy 500 stand-out

The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón starts its summer swing – six races over the next 11 weeks – with round four at Lime Rock Park July 6-7, the ninth annual Northeast Grand Prix. It’s got one of the biggest grids ever for this event: 32 entries made up of 15 prototypes and 17 GT cars.

As always at one of ALMS’s shortest yet fastest venues, Lime Rock’s 1.5-mile, eight-turn circuit at Lime Rock provides no room for error. The multi-class format – Prototype 1, Prototype 2, Grand Touring, Prototype Challenge and GT Challenge – results in side by side and nose to tail action during every lap of the two-hour, 45-minute clash.

Dyson Racing’s Chris Dyson and Guy Smith in P1, and BMW Team RLL’s Joey Hand and Dirk Müller in GT, are back to defend class wins from last year’s Lime Rock race. Dyson Racing, based in nearby Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has two Mazda-engined coupes going up against Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s Honda Performance Development ARX-03a. The Muscle Milk duo of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr have won the last two ALMS rounds; they lead the standings – if you call 4 meager points a lead.

In the GT division, there are 11 entries from seven teams representing five manufacturers. Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner lead the driver’s championship (59 points) after winning the last two races, Long Beach and Laguna Seca. BMW Team RLL’s Hand and Müller are second, just 7 points in arrears. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finished second last year at Lime Rock in their Porsche 911 GT3 RSRGT race, but they come here a lowly 17th in the standings.

Also in GT, Connecticut’s Bill Sweedler, CEO of Windsong Brands of Westport, co-drives an all-new Alex Job Racing Lotus Evora with Indy 500 stand-out Townsend Bell (in five starts from 2008 on, three top-10 finishes with a best of fourth in 2009).

In P2, Level 5 Motorsports hasn’t lost this season. The team brings two HPD ARX-03bs to Lime Rock for team owner/driver Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Luis Diaz. Conquest Endurance, with a unique Morgan-Nissan, and Dempsey Racing’s Lola-Judd – featuringHollywood star Patrick Dempsey in his second career ALMS race start – make up the P2 field.

In Prototype Challenge (PC), CORE autosport is unbeaten in an eight-car field of identically prepared ORECA FLM09-Chevrolets, while Alex Job Racing leads the GT Challenge division – all Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars.

The American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park is Saturday, July 7, with the green flag scheduled to drop at 3:00 p.m. Eastern; alms.com has live in-car cameras, plus timing & scoring feeds.

Tickets are available at limerock.com and by calling 860.435.5000.