Spring Chicken race participant's BMW decked out with The Rooster Challenge logo

When you hear someone mention the phrase “charity event” or “charity benefit,” it brings a few usual images to mind. We immediately think of walkathons, 5K runs or perhaps the occasional festival. It’s rare or non-existent that we see charity events that appeal to the car junkie or auto aficionado. Well, maybe that’s not so true anymore.
A few years ago, a couple friends and I started a charity organization called The Rooster Challenge. Our goal was to present automotive-based events with the intent of raising money for charity. We immediately partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. They are an excellent foundation and we felt honored that they wanted to sign on with our event. So, in a nutshell, The Rooster is an outlet for 25-45 year old males to be able to have fun in their cars while giving to a great charity.

Spring Chicken race participants

Last fall, we had the first official Rooster Challenge and it was set up as a drag racing event as well as checkpoint-based road rally and poker run. On Saturday night, the drivers all squared off at Thornhill Dragway for an evening of friendly bracket-style drag racing. On Sunday, they met back up in Florence, KY to do the rally part of the event. The participants left the start line and were given a list of seven checkpoints. They had to hit each checkpoint, choose a playing card and receive a token as proof that they were there. After hitting all seven locations, they head back to the start/finish line where they punch a time clock and have their mileage and poker hand tallied. Prizes were given based on shortest time, shortest distance driven and best poker hand. We had about 20 teams in the event, and everyone had a great time.

Participants had to hit each checkpoint, choose a playing card and receive a token as proof that they were there.

Just recently we put on our second event, The Spring Chicken. We changed things up a bit with this one and switched the format to more of a scavenger hunt as to include people who wanted to participate, but didn’t have a performance style car. This event took place over two days, starting at 8 p.m. on Friday night and ending at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. The teams had 23 hours to total as many points as they could by getting items on the scavenger hunt list. It was a combination of photo opps, physical items, geocaches and obscure automotive trivia. Some items required some serious driving (ie; St. Louis and Detroit), while others were a bit closer.

The start/finish was at the Red 9 Fabrication & Speed shop in Datyon, KY and was followed with a great after-party where teams traded stories and we viewed the projected photos from the event.  If you’re curious about the craziness that these teams had to go through, the list of items from the event can be found here. The winning team racked up well over 13,000 points to win by more than 1,000. Please stay tuned to the Rooster Challenge Web site for details on the upcoming fall event. Join us! It’s a blast and benefits a great charity!