Heartbreak for local team in this year’s Cliffhanger

The 2025 Cliffhanger 4×4 Off Road competition is now done and dusted with the Dynamic Racing team of Matt Reitsma (driver) and James Reitsma (navigator) finishing as the overall winners.

The pair finished with a total score of 3,100 points from the 29 stages of the competition, which included tough winching courses, long navigation stages and fast creek runs.

Cobar’s Fingy Racing (driver Robert Fing and navigator Jasper Rietmeuller) had some good results however some inconsistency over the week, coupled with a 100 point Navi swap penalty, saw them finish 57th in the field of 88.

Another Cobar entry, Perry Stylianos and his navigator Jim Walsh (from Dubbo) in the 50Seven Automotive team got off to a pretty good start to finish midfield in the prologue.

Perry said after finishing the last two events in the top three in their class, they were confident of doing well this year.

A local mechanic with his own business, Perry had also done a lot of work on the 50Seven Automotive vehicle to get it ready for this year’s event.

“I had people coming from Newcastle, Sydney and every weekend for the last three months there has been someone here helping me with the car,” Perry said.

“We had had a good run for the night stage. 

“We played pretty well, we battled heavy dust, so we were pretty proud of our efforts there actually.

“We did pretty well to be moving as quick as we were as the cars in front of us ran a lot earlier in the night.”

They finished 10th overall in the field of 88.

Perry was feeling confident and thought that would set the pace for them for the week.

However the next morning during the next stage, where they were also going really well and making good time, their 50Seven Automotive vehicle experienced a brake failure.

“A hydro booster failure,” Perry explained.

And that particular part was from the United States.

“It’s a modified part and we just didn’t have a spare,” he said.

“I had just about every other spare to fix the car except one of those and so, yeah we had to swallow our pride and call it a day.”

Perry said they were unable to get the car running again and had to pull out of the competition.

He hung around for a couple of days to watch a few of his mates, including the team that won, Dynamic Racing which is a 50Seven Automotive sponsored car.

“Matt and James are really good friends.”

It all however got too much for Perry.

“I got FOMO [Fear Of Missing Out] and packed up my stuff and came back to work.”

While he’s disappointed to have crashed out of the competition early, Perry has already entered his next event, Off Road Outlaws, in Queensland, next year.

And while he won’t have the Cliffhanger on his backdoor step (as this was its last year of competition at Mt Gap), he said they’ll still be doing plenty of racing.

“We go over to Hillston to do The Gap 440.

“Cars and race cars, that’s why I’m here doing what I do.”