{"id":36766,"date":"2020-04-14T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=36766"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:02","slug":"the-club-connection-norcal-challengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2020\/04\/the-club-connection-norcal-challengers.html","title":{"rendered":"The Club Connection: NorCal Challengers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

White, later model, good condition, reliable, no damage, must see! Yes,\nthis sounds like an advertisement for a used car, but one could argue it has\npotential as an online dating profile headline. According to current\nstatistics, about 40% of couples find their mate through the internet. But\npeople also use the web to form friendships, and that is exactly how the NorCal\nChallengers club was started. On a crisp fall day in 2009, 15 or 20 Dodge\nChallenger enthusiasts met in person for the first time after exchanging\nmessages on the Challenger Talk forum. There was an instant connection among\nthis group, and shortly thereafter, the club was officially founded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dodge Garage spoke with Ray Oslowski, the current club president, to\nlearn more about the NorCal Challengers. Ray joined in 2012 shortly after\npurchasing a Challenger. While he had started doing some initial research on\nthe vehicle and potential modifications, he had not yet heard of any clubs in\nthe area. One day, Ray and his wife, Theresa, were walking around and saw a man\nin a NorCal Challengers jacket. Theresa approached him and struck up a\nconversation, which resulted in him telling her more about the club and handing\nher a business card with more information. Ray immediately joined and has been\nan active member ever since. In fact, this method is how the club gains a lot\nof their new membership \u2013 they leave business cards under the door handle of\nany Challenger they see when they are out and about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NorCal welcomes both new and vintage Challengers to their organization.\nA one-time registration fee of $25 allows you to join in on all of the fun\nevents they have. In addition to weekday dinner meetings, weekend cruses and\nattending car shows, they hold quite a few unique events. A recent Gold\nDiscovery cruise along some of the California gold trails drew so many\nparticipants (75 Challengers), they had to break up into three sub-groups along\nthe journey as to not overwhelm a single restaurant with a sudden influx of\ndiners. Not to worry, though \u2013 a schedule allowed everyone to meet up at various\npoints to reconnect throughout the adventure. Another big draw each year is the\nannual baseball game at Raley Field in Sacramento. Yes, the club members get\ntogether to watch the game, but the real excitement happens before the first\npitch. The owners park outside the stadium to show off their vehicles, then\nform a parade route and literally drive along the perimeter of the field. In\n2019, as 80 Challengers drove around the diamond, you would have thought someone\nhad just hit a home run the way the crowd cheered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Other notable annual events include handicap drag racing at the Sacramento Raceway and a caravan of Challengers that drive down to Pomona to attend Spring Fest. The members stay at the same hotel and have a detailing party before the event, which must be quite an interesting sight to see as you drive by! And, of course, a favorite smaller gathering is Mod Days, where a few members who want to work on their vehicles meet up at a home or member repair shop. The guys and gals collaborate on things like lowering vehicles, changing drive lines, adding a cold air intake or installing a strut tower brace. Engines aren\u2019t the only things being fired up at these events \u2013 there is usually a grill or smoker going to provide barbecue as fuel for all this hard work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But out of all the events the NorCal Challengers participate in, Ray is\nmost passionate and proud of their charity efforts for the UC Davis MIND\nInstitute. \u201cThis hospital serves children with autism and other\nneurodevelopment challenges,\u201d Ray explained. \u201cWe have an annual display of\nChallengers in their parking lot as part of a family day where the club raises\nfunds for the institute. We also come back at Halloween for a Truck \u2018n Treat\nevent, allowing the opportunity for the kids to trick-or-treat who otherwise\nwould not be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Speaking of displays, the NorCal Challengers were planning to host\ntheir first show this year, but unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak forced\nthem to cancel the plans until another year. The virus has also impacted their\nweekly gatherings. While members keep in touch via the club\u2019s Facebook group,\nRay wanted to create something that replicated what they do in-person. The club\nhosted its first Virtual Car Show in mid-April of 2020. Members were asked to\nsubmit a 30-second video showcasing their vehicle or a modification they made\nto it. The club\u2019s vice president, Mika, compiled these clips into a single video,\nwhich the membership simultaneously viewed during a Facebook watch party.\nAfterwards, a gallery of vehicle photos was added to the group, and the vehicle\nwith the most likes was awarded Best in Show. NorCal will continue to use\ninnovative digital gatherings until they can once again meet to hear the revs\nof those engines in person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    White, later model, good condition, reliable, no damage, must see! Yes, this sounds like an advertisement for a used car, but one could argue it has potential as an online dating profile headline. According to current statistics, about 40% of couples find their mate through the internet. But people also use the web to form friendships, and that is exactly how the NorCal Challengers club was started. On a crisp fall day in 2009, 15 or 20 Dodge Challenger enthusiasts met in person for the first time after exchanging messages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":36811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/norcalchallengersfeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36766"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36832,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36766\/revisions\/36832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}