IRWIN Tools Night Race Success for SCC!

Speedway Children's Charities had an amazing week of fundraisers leading up to the IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway!

We started out on Monday with the 12th Annual Speedway Children's Charities Golf Tournament presented by Baker's Construction Services which allowed nearly 150 golfers to hit the greens for the kids of our region. We also hosted the Scotts Turf Builder Cornhole Classic and the Speedway Children's Charities Track Walk. Everyone had a great time for a great cause! We can't forget about the Live Auction we held on Thursday night where Justin Allgaer and Brad Daughtery stopped by to help raise funds for the kids and hang out with the fans. We also had a great time hosting all of our Ultimate Bristol Experience Online Auction winners. They got to spend time with the Trackside Live hosts, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Speed and Clint Bowyer. Not to mention a couple of the winners got to watch the entire race from Bristol Motor Speedway's newly renovated infield! All in all it was a fantastic weekend allowing SCC to raise lots of money for the children of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. 

We are so grateful to all the BMS fans and loyal supporters of SCC and we can't wait to move on to the next event, the Sharky 500. We got a great jump on selling sharks race week thanks to all of our hard working volunteers who helped sell almost 1,000 entries to BMS Night Race fans at the track. Who will win the Bristol Motor Speedway Pace Car this year? How about the $5,000 to Grand Home Furnishings? Purchase your shark online today and get in the race!

What a Weekend!

It is amazing that the 2010 Food City 500 race weekend has now officially come and gone. Speedway Children's Charities had a fantastic couple of weeks of fundraising and we are very grateful to all the fans that came out to support us!

Dinner with Darrell Waltrip was a hoot! The pace car laps that he gave to our guest afterwards were a thrill to watch and I can tell the passengers were surprised with how little DW held back. They were getting around "the World's fastest half-mile" qualifying style! Thanks to DW for giving his time and helping us raise thousands of dollars for Tri-Cities children in need.

On Friday we had a great turn-out for the Richard Petty Driving Experience ride-alongs and had a lot of fun auctioning off several autographed items at Food City Race Night! The Wii Boxing match with the likes of Elliott Sadler, Scott Speed, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch & Joey Logano was a lot of fun to watch and they were all kind enough to autograph some items for SCC to auction off. The Family Feud battle between Jeff Burton along with Kevin and Delana Harvick versus Tony Stewart, Ryan & Krissie Newman proved to be a crowd favorite and SCC auctioned off two other spots on each team for fans! They had a great time and got to yell out silly answers with some of NASCAR's best!

Saturday there was the second of two qualifying tournaments during the Scotts Turf Builder Cornhole Classic to benefit Speedway Children's Charities. Nothing like tossing some corn-filled bags around for charity! The American Cornhole Organization made sure it was a fun event for Cornhole pros and beginners alike. That evening we held our very first March weekend Speedway Children's Charities Track Walk. Bristol is known for night-racing, well on Saturday we decided we'd do some night-walking! General Sadler and the YMCA teens entertained the anxious crowd before going down to trek the high-banks.

Sunday was a great day for Speedway Children's Charities auction winners. Three of these SCC supporters jumped in the bed of a Ford F-150 with their favorite driver for driver introductions while others got to attend the driver's meeting, pre-race and stand in Victory Lane while Jimmie Johnson celebrated his first win at Thunder Valley.

We held several other events throughout the weekend to raise funds for children in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and we are so thankful to the fans for their overwhelming support. Now we prepare for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals along with the Irwin Tool Night Race week and the Third Annual Sharky 500 where we will give away the 2010 pace car! From the bottom of our hearts THANK YOU FANS FOR ALL YOU DO TO HELP CHILDREN IN NEED!

Moving Forward

The Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities would like to thank everyone that participated in any of our events during August Race Week!

We had so many different events going on all over property all weekend long we were able to raise a lot of money for the Children of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

You know us though we're always moving forward and now we are working on our Sharky 500 & Kids Expo to take place on October 17th. We are all very excited about the second year of this fundraiser! Last year we raced 4,400 rubber sharks down Beaver Creek here on the Speedway property and the winning shark's owner took home a Centurion Boat. Well this year we're giving away Bristol Motor Speedway's 2009 Ford Mustang Pace Car! Second place is $5,000 to Grand Home Furnishings and third place is a vacation package to Universal Studios Orlando courtesy of All Journeys Travel & Allegiant Air. Sharks are available at many different locations including online right here at www.speedwaycharities.org, All Pizza Plus locations, Tri-Cities Fas Mart Convenience Stores and Grand Home Furnishings. We hope to have thousands and thousands of little rubber sharks fighting for the checkered flag come October 17th!

We will also hold a Kids Expo that day that is totally free for everyone and will have a lot of free activities for kids including inflatables, a rock wall, face painting, monster trucks and much more! We will also be signing folks up to drive their own car around "The World's Fastest Half-Mile." We hope to see you there cheering on your shark and enjoying the festivities!

Bristol Dragway Celebrity Golf Benefit

On Thursday, May 14, it will be more important than ever for some of the NHRA's top stars to make sure they drive straight in Bristol. 

They won't be driving their powerful machines to the finish line in Thunder Valley, but making sure their opening shots land on the fairway during the Sixth Annual Bristol Dragway Celebrity Golf Benefit presented by Alpha Natural Resources at the Country Club of Bristol.

The tournament, which sees many NHRA racers compete for the coveted Darrell Russell Cup, benefits the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities and takes place the day before the first round of qualifying for the Thunder Valley Nationals.

Last year's tournament featured 20 drivers and raised more than $25,000 for various charities throughout Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

Among the drivers expected to participate in this year's tournament are six-time and defending Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher, Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden, Brandon Bernstein, Larry Dixon, Doug Herbert, Bob Tasca, Allen Johnson and Dave Connolly.

The tournament begins with registration and a putting contest at 11 a.m.  Lunch is scheduled for noon.  The shotgun start is slated for 1 p.m.

A limited number of slots remain available.  Hole sponsorship is $1,500, which includes a four-person team and signage on the sponsored hole. Teams also may be purchased for $1,200 without a hole sponsorship. All team members will receive a goody bag as well as lunch.

To enter a team or for more information, please contact Barbara Kaiser-Pigg at (423) 989-6975 or via email at barbara@bristolmotorspeedway.com

A big thank you!

The Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities got a nice fundraising boost after the Saturday Night Special at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 21 due to a couple of drivers' generosity.

Jimmy Spencer and Jack Ingram, who participated in the Saturday Night Special at BMS, a race for former Bristol winners which took place after the Scotts Turf Builder 300 Nationwide event, donated half of their earnings to the Bristol Chapter of SCC. Both drivers donated $2,500 each to the non-profit organization that raises funds for children's agencies in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

From everyone at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities, a hearty thanks to Jimmy and Jack for opening their hearts to SCC!

Here's to a successful and fun Food City 500 weekend!!

As I watched the souvenir haulers and RVs leave property Monday I couldn't believe that it was all over!

We had a great week of raising funds for Speedway Children's Charities and we are very appreciative of all the fans, volunteers and companies that supported us!

The Richard Petty Driving Experience Ride-Alongs on Friday night sold out and it was great to see all the smiles when folks jumped out of the cars. We want to send a big THANK YOU to all the hard working men and women with Richard Petty Driving Experience. They sure know how to entertain and make their customers happy! With over 300 rides given, Speedway Children's Charities is going to benefit tremendously from the evening's events.
The Ride of a Lifetime Auction presented by Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, TN was a great success as well! The 15 lucky winners hopped in the back of convertible Ford Mustangs and got to spend some time chatting with the driver of their choice right before the Food City 500.

I want to give another special thank you to all of our volunteers that came out to the track and put in long hours to help us sell NASCAR Day pins and the Motorcycle Raffle tickets. The motto of the weekend was "sell sell sell" and you all lived up to that!

I'd like to wrap up by saying that it was an intense weekend filled with caring and generous individuals. Speedway Children's Charities could not reach the thousands of children that we do without everyone's help. We are very blessed to be surrounded with such wonderful energy. Here's to a successful and fun Food City 500 weekend!! Now lets get ready for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway!

Barbara Kaiser-Pigg
Marketing/Event Manager, SCC
Bristol Motor Speedway

Its time to head to Bristol

One our favorite weeks of the year is coming up as we get ready for the Food City 500 and all the other March races.

The speedway has planned lots of new activities for the race fans when they get here and the Bristol Speedway Children's Charities team has plenty of events on tap for our visitors to "The World's Fastest Half-Mile".

It is going to be a great week full many different and new things for the fans to do. As always, we have Ride of A Lifetime Auction, Richard Petty Driving Experience Ride A- Long, Walk of Fame Pavers and Doug Shealey beautiful prints of NASCAR's most popular venue. Speaking of prints, we will have big news to announce in the very near future about a project between Bristol Motor Speedway and another one of America's great artists.

What's new is Food City Race Night on Friday night at the Speedway. Look for the Charities to have a big presence at this popular event.

Please make it a point to look us up when you are here. We appreciate your continued support as this economy has created more need than ever among children's focused organizations in our region. Have a great time at the Food City 500 and help the Bristol chapter of Speedway Children's Charities make a difference in the lives of children.

Claudia Byrd

I Cannot Believe We Have Less than 30 Days to Race Time!

It seems like we were just visiting the pediatric ward at Hoston Valley Medical Center with our Holiday of Smiles goody bags and now it's the end of February!

That means that the Food City 500 weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway is less than 30 days away. We're so excited to welcome 160,000 of our closest friends to town and SCC is even more excited to have the opportunity to raise money for the children in our community. We have two large fundraisers; the Ride of a Lifetime Auction presented by Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, TN and the rides conducted by Richard Petty Driving Experience. Both are unique opporutnities for race fans to either ride around the track or interact with their favorite drivers. We've held both fundraisers for a few years now and they've really grown. With the economy uncertainty we've all wondered how they'll go in 2009. We're so anxious to raise more money than ever because the financial climate is going to cause our non-profit children's agencies to need it more than ever. SCC really wants to step it up this year and help meet more of the need. If you're interested in our upcoming March fundraisers visit our Events page on this website.

In addition to those mentioned above we will also have some smaller fundraisers taking place around property. We will be selling a limited edition painting of Bristol Motor Speedway by Doug Shealy. There are only 2,500 and each is signed and numbered by the artist. Fans will also have the opportunity to leave a permanent mark at BMS on the Walk of Fame. SCC will be set up in front of the old ticket office selling these items. BMS visitors will see NASCAR Day pins everywhere they turn during the Food City 500 weekend too. SCC and the NASCAR Foundation have partnered once again to get people involved in NASCAR Day on May 16. Pins are only $5 and the proceeds will go to support both organizations.

We love race week and we love raising money for kids so if you have any questions about what I've mentioned feel free to give me a call, 423-989-6975 or shoot me an email barbara@bristolmotorspeedway.com. The racing season has begun and SCC is ready to make 2009 a great year for thousands of children!

Barbara Kaiser-Pigg
Marketing/Event Manager

Bristol Chapter is a beacon of hope for children and their families during times of need

With the help of several generous organizations, the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities was able to make a special delivery to children in the Pediatric Ward of the Wellmont Holston Valley Hospital.

With the same cheer and affection as Santa himself, and with Christmas quickly approaching, representatives from the Bristol Chapter delivered backpacks full of gifts for the children on Monday, December 22. Included in the backpack were an Autotrader.com squeezable car, a pair of Crocs, a stuffed Aflac duck and two die-cast race cars.

While the gift may seem small to some, it can make all the difference in the world to children facing difficult times during the Christmas season.

"It was so much fun for us as staff of the Wellmont Holston Valley Pediatric Unit to see the children's faces light up at the sight of their new Crocs," said Sheila Smith, Clinical Leader of NICU/Pediatrics at Holston Valley Hospital. "What a perfect Christmas gift. Our families were so pleased to know that others were thinking of them during their hospital admission."

While larger events like the Autotrader.com Speedway In Lights, Ford Ride of a Lifetime Auction and NHRA Celebrity Golf Tournament attract all the attention, smaller acts like these are what make the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities a beacon of hope for children and their families during times of need.

Wes Ramey
Media & PR Bristol Motor Speedway

A wonderful evening for SCC

November 13th was such a wonderful evening for SCC. Giving away $575,000 was something we only dreamed about when we first started the Bristol chapter.

Being able to raise this much money for our region says so much about how truly good people are and how much support we receive. Every year it seems we're able to add to the total and we could never do that if it wasn't for the number of folks out there who are not just willing to open their hearts but their check books as well.

I think it's remarkable that with the economic difficulties we're all facing right now that we were able to raise more money than last year and help so many agencies and children. There's just not a better feeling in the entire world. The Night of Smiles is all about the kids and I could not be prouder of the fact that we're able to make a difference in so many children's lives. It is by far my favorite night of the year!

Claudia Byrd
Chair of the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities