11th to 16th April 2021 - 1,000 klm of racing
Famous for :
- Really long challenging stages
- In 2019 over 800 klm = heaps of seat time
- Stages built with up close spectating in mind
- Family Friendly base camp - kids u/15 Free
- Best rigs from all over Australia
- Here is where we are with numbers and these are deposits paid for an event in 18 month - what does that tell you? ...
** Click on this link to see list of teams - Need to use a laptop to see all three pages**
Cliffhanger's Covid situation
Covid sure has brought about uncertainty. We run every second year and were very fortunate not to be racing in 2020. Not only does Cliffhanger not wish to be responsible for an outbreak or contribute to ill health in any way it depends upon borders being open so people can visit and get back home again. The NSW state government needs to permit outdoor motor sport gatherings and we must also have the full support of the property owners and local community. In Feb which is 2 months before the April date the Cliffhanger committee will meet with the property owners to consider all of the above and announce either a confirmation of the April dates or push back to July school holidays. Any developments will be posted here.
Welcome to the new look Cliffhanger
Coming up in the 2021 Cliffhanger we will see...
- All stages will be started and finished using Rallysafe = no start lines, or 54321 or finish boxes, better use of marshals and no human error.
- A stage book handed out at the start of the event with all your stage notes for the week
- 7 Marshal leaders and they each only have 3 stages to worry about for the week and 2 days apart so they have plenty of time to prepare
- Less GPS - the rallysafe file needs to be smaller so we can fit all the stage starts and finishes on it so that means not as many waypoints. Oh well I guess we had better do more winching in that case. We have 3 rock faces very close to camp we will use for a night stage.
- We are sticking with Super Tourers but that class will be all about buying a budget vehicle (say $1000) and spending very little on it to race.
- In 2019 there was 800 klm of racing - So in 2021 we will increase that to 1,000 klm of racing.
See below what makes Cliffhanger ....
NEXT CLIFFHANGER EVENT
Welcome to the New Look Cliffhanger
Cliffhanger is a week long off road event every second year involving winching up rocks, speedy creek runs, navigational tasks, rally stages on farm trails and across virgin terrain and is famous for its vertical winch walls. The stages are all long lasting and typically combine several facets of winching, navigation and speed.
In 2019 over 800 klm were covered in stages which meant teams would spend hours behind the wheel every day. The Buggies said there was no other event in the country that offers this much seat time.
Cliffhanger runs every second year to ensure everyone can attend and we have great numbers. The next event is in April 2021.
Our Super Tourer Class caters for 2 types of entrant 1) The budget entry build. Teams are buying old patrols and cruisers for just a few hundred dollars and build them up with some suspension, tyres, a winch, lockers and a basic cage. Their rigs could be in that $5000 to $10,000 price bracket and still be competitive and they have a stack of fun. 2) The guy who still drives his rig on the road and takes it on 4wd trips. This competitor wants to keep it somewhat roadworthy. Either way, these two types of entrant want to be able to afford to race and have all the pier pressure of super fast winches, trick suspension mods and go fast trimmings removed. Requires a minimum traditional 4 point roll cage which can be removable like the mines cages. Teams retain the original engine type and the chassis, wheel base and suspension mounts remain unchanged. These guys are speed limited to 80 klm p/h. The concept is that it is affordable to "fit in", still be competitive and have fun.
Our traditional Winch Truck (Challenge) Class vehicles started life as a conventional 4WD but the gloves came off and they were transformed into super tough and super capable power machines. These guys love stretching their legs in the rally and long creek bed stages yet still take on major winch climbs. There could be water and mud depending upon conditions.
In 2019 we introduced Buggy Class. Mostly built from scratch these guys can show off their super flex rock crawling tendencies in the big rocks, and like the rest of the classes also stretch their legs in our long open creek beds and rally stages and have heaps of seat time in the nav stages and also get to race at night. We keep these guys out of the mud and water.
Typically every day will have a speed stage, winch stage, navigation stage and then a few stages that have a bit of everything. Teams can expect to be racing every second night (to approx midnight) with an off night for rebuilding and socialising in between. Competitors are known to quote "Now that was a Cliffhanger Stage". In 2017 we started stringing stages together to create longer stages and in 2019 we started seeing stages last over 5 hours and exceed 100 klm.
The hardness of challenges will be commensurate to your class and vehicle restrictions.
BASE CAMP - Cliffhanger is a Family Friendly base camp, week long event where competitors, pit crew, friends, family and marshals all camp together in a social and friendly atmosphere.
Speaking of Base Camp we still have the same location at the far end of the Mt Gap Rd.
SUPPORT CREW Don't forget to round up your mates as support crew. They can help you in between stages, carry your extra fuel (Note Jerry Cans not allowed on competing cars) and they can go and recover you if broken down once the stage is ended and clear. They would enter the event as a spectator.
Note that a good support crew should have the following attributes before we can send them off to recover you
- a good radio
- live axle suspension or the capability of handling rough terrain
- 33" tyres or taller
- a gps offering the ability to follow an arrow to a given waypoint
- A second capable car as we dont send anyone out alone.
- We need to be able to call upon your support crew. It's no good if we cant alert them to your need.
If you dont have a crew or your crew is missing any of the above we shall arrange your recovery but you will be added to the list and it could be a while before we reach you.
School Holidays We have set the dates to coincide with school holidays in NSW and VIC and is 2 weeks after Easter so you can still do your traditional Easter "thing" and still do Cliffhanger and most kids don't miss school. Also kids under 15 are FREE.
There is also a week in July each year where the school holidays line up and that's our back up standby week in the very unlikely event we get rained out. Given we have already had our 1 in a hundred year big wet we should be right for another 96 years.
GPS TRACKING - Once again we will be using Rallysafe. We can find lost or stranded vehicles, we can send basic messages and we can also see who is going the wrong way, taking a short cut or speeding in Super Tourer Classes. There are also safety features like warnings of approaching vehicles. It also manages start and finish times of stages as well as achieving waypoints in nav stages. Teams need to purchase and fit the mounting kit to their vehicle before they come. We wont have any mounting kits at the event and Rallysafe cant be used without it and you cant race without Rallysafe.
Here is the link for purchasing the fitting kit ...
https://shop.statusas.com/shop/rallysafe/rallysafe-permanent-installation-kit-everything-you-need/
WRONG WAY GO BACK - in rally stages we often use arrows at gates and intersections to guide you. On the back of those signs we now have signage clearly saying "WRONG WAY - GO BACK !" If you choose to ignore these signs you are clearly going the wrong way and place yourself and others at risk of collision. A practice we can not endorse and so we have a rule that says teams will be disqualified if the Rallysafe alerts the office they have been going against the signs. Not only are we making the track easier to follow but making it a lot safer too.
Payments and entries
On our entries page we take entries for
- Spectators & Support Crews
- Officials
- Teams
Here is the link to the entry page ...
https://www.cliffhanger4wdevent.com.au/entries/
Spectators, Support Crews and Officials all need to be entered online before the event using this link in order get their free event shirt. If you rock up and pay on the day the shirts will cost $30 ea.
Newsletters & Updates - All drivers and Navi's, Spectators, Support Crews and Officials who are on our list at that time will receive regular newsletters by email and updates by text.
Team Deposit - To secure your entry the deposit is now $750. You will not make the list until the deposit is paid.
For the 2019 event we offered monthly instalment invoices. It started out being popular but by the end no one was paying these so we are not doing this for 2021.
Monthly Instalment - Most people find it easier and most affordable to pay by the month. You can set up an automatic payment with your own internet banking or you can provide cr card details and we set that up to process automatically at our end. Just make sure that any deposits have your team name or surname as a reference. If you start monthly payments by say June 2019 the amount is only $100 per month.
Monthly Statements We shall email statements monthly showing payments and balances owing - this way you can make sure we have picked up all your payments. Every year we get people using "Cliffhanger" as the reference and that isn't much help in identifying who paid.
Balance Due - Entries need to be paid in full by 30th Nov 2020 which is 4 months before the 2021 event. Lots of money needs to be spent in the months leading up to the event. Also we dont have time to chase or process payments in that busy lead up period and it gives us a chance to establish those last few teams who are not coming.
Payment Methods - You can do internet banking payments, cr card over phone and we will set up on line payments where you can nominate an amount to just pay off your account.
Invoices - you get a tax invoice when you enter Cliffhanger and it can be in a company name.
Pull Outs - In 2019 we had as many as 100 teams entered but only 41 teams raced. Having 60 teams (2/3rds) pull out meant we desperately over planned and over catered a lot of things like toilets, medics, officials and merchandise. As such we have increased the deposit to $750 so that the genuine teams enter and because they do race they dont lose anything and the possible pull outs who are only half committed give it a second thought before entry.
Capped Entry Numbers - We are capping entries to 60 teams all up.
- 50 x Winch Truck (Challenge). We already have 51 but 8 haven't paid deposits so just a few spots remain.
- 15 x Buggies - half way there with 8
- 15 x Super Tourers - already have 10
Stand By List - Once we reach our entry number for each class we start a stand by list. What we dont want is 30 winch truck entries and only 15 show up.
So we start off by taking nominations with deposits paid. When we reach the max for a given class we contact those teams and establish how genuine they are and those teams who are sticking to a payment plan of sorts and totally committed to coming remain on the official Entry List and those yet to build or buy a car or have reservations can go on the stand by list and make room for other genuine entries. So we then have an Entered List and a Stand By List.
Refund Policy -
- If a Stand By team does not get an entry their deposit will be refunded.
- Any team who pulls out prior to 30th Nov 2020 and can have their place filled by another team from the Stand By list will be refunded monies paid except their deposit
- Pull outs after 30th Nov 2020 are not refundable nor can be rolled to the next event.
- All refunds will be paid after the event.
BANK ACCOUNT : Remember to put your team name or surname on any bank deposits as a reference.
ANZ BSB 013279 ACC 461538778
NAME Cliffhanger 4WD Event
I had a dream to run another event sort of like the Baja 1000 but here in Aus. A 1,000 klm race with just a few checkpoints for refuelling. But the logistics of making a 1,000 klm long stretch of track safe from spectators being in backs of utes travelling on a live track was beyond me so here is the next best thing - I am making Cliffhanger longer. An extra 25% more seat time will get us up over the 1,000 klm of racing. Cliffhanger has always had long stages - now they will be really long.