Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Gives Back To Community Programs

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Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves at Martha O’Bryan Center. Photo: Courtesy of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix

The inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix not only produced a successful weekend on track but also found time to give back to several community organizations and event partners in Nashville. The people who helped put on this event along with the drivers, participated in a number of programs and events ranging from those aimed at providing fundraising to recognizing and showing appreciation for military and first responders.

The Grand Prix helped raise nearly $35,000 for local Nashville ministry and youth center Rocketown by staging a pedal cart race for children during last Aug. 6’s FanFest event on Broadway. It also raised nearly $25,000 for the Martha O’Bryan Center and provided once-in-a-lifetime race weekend experiences for the organization’s donors; facilitated a donation of $25,000 to the Daniels Center at Middle Tennessee State University courtesy of G. Harbaugh Foundation; and raised more than $6,000 for Walk Bike Nashville by staging the Music City Pedal Prix.

“Being an active community partner and engaged corporate citizen is a critical part of our mission,” says Chris Parker, president of Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. “We want to use our platform and the visibility that it provides to engage our fans and make them aware of the great work and important services our community partners provide here in Middle Tennessee.”

Pictured (L-R): Scott Dixon, Jimmie Johnson, Korean War veteran Jim Markham, Dario Franchitti, and Josef Newgarden. Photo: Courtesy of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix

Donations of more than 7,000 tickets to military and first responders were given courtesy of the Wesley Financial Group and the company’s Freedom Friday initiative. Among them, Tyler Luellen, James Wells and Michael Sipos, three of the six Metro Nashville Police Department officers who heroically responded to the Christmas morning bombing in downtown Nashville, were treated to a VIP experience by the event organizers that included special visits with NTT IndyCar Series stars Jimmie Johnson and Marcus Ericsson.

The organizers also honored the military by having Korean War veteran Jim Markham, a 66-year member of the American Legion, join IndyCar legend Dario Franchitti in the pace car to lead Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon on the track’s ceremonial lap that included crossing the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge.

Additionally, the Grand Prix donated more than 800 pounds of food courtesy of Levy Restaurants to the Nashville Rescue Mission. GT America driver Rob Holland visited the Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center  to offer words of encouragement to the youth. He also made a promise to the group that when he returned to Nashville next year that he would give those interested an internship with the series or one of the teams.

In-kind donations were given to the American Cancer Society, Friends of the Smokies, Boy Scouts of Middle Tennessee, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Monroe Carroll Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Steven Boero
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