Another milestone has been reached. Team Seattle has competed in the world’s greatest endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After starting in 17th place in the GT2 category, drivers Don Kitch Jr., Joe Foster, and Patrick Dempsey managed to bring the car home in 9th place. What makes a 9th place finish so amazing is that Team Seattle was the only all-rookie (to Le Mans) group. Just finishing the race is a major achievement. And Team Seattle had the only all-American driver group and was the only charity based organization in the race.
Most significantly, in running the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Team Seattle managed to raise more than $250,000 for the Infant Cardiac Care Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Many thanks to the hundreds of individuals who donated through the per-lap pledge program or made flat donations. This year we used Facebook and Twitter to ask people to donate. They responded heartily with donations ranging from $5 to $500 and even higher – and these from people who only learned about Team Seattle during the race. Thank you!
We had some very special people racing with us in Le Mans: the folks who took part in the My Face Raced Le Mans program. You went for quite a ride. We hope we made your hearts beat a little faster.
And a special thanks to our local corporate sponsors including Global Diving, The Guggenheim Partnership, and Microsoft’s new search and discover engine, Bing! We could not have raced without you.
Congratulations to everyone involved. It was a true group effort. And it is fair to say: “Our hearts beat faster so the children’s hearts will beat stronger.”
Photos from during the race