Jaguar Land Rover has announced that, come 2026, it will enter a factory works team, which, with the Defender, will compete in the Dakar Rally.
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Confirming its intention to participate in the world’s most demanding off-road endurance motorsport event, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced it will, for the first time ever, enter a factory works team to compete, with the Defender, in the 2026 Dakar Rally.
Said James Barclay, Managing Director of Motorsport at JLR, “Anyone who loves motorsport will have a passion for Dakar. It’s the ‘Everest’ of motorsport and an event where success is dependent as much on human determination in the toughest of conditions as it is the ultimate test for vehicle and engineering capability. Bringing the world’s most capable and iconic 4×4 to the world’s most iconic rally raid is a perfect fit.
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“Our first time ever with a factory entry into the Dakar means we are right at the beginning of our journey. We are conscious of how much we have to learn and achieve before taking the start in 2026, but we are already well under way and looking forward to the adventure.”
However, before the Defender will make its Dakar Rally debut in 2026, with the Defender brand being the official car partner of the Dakar Rally, a fleet of Defenders will, from 2025, be used to transport rally officials and media, while JLR will supply a sestet of “specialised” Defender recce vehicles to support officials of the Dakar Rally organisation and test routes for future instalments of the Dakar Rally. (As a reminder, the 47th edition of the Dakar Rally takes place from 3 to 17 January, 2025.)
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Said Mark Cameron, Managing Director of the Defender brand, “Adventure is in the very DNA of the Defender brand, so we are inspired to partner with Dakar – the ultimate motorsport adventure – where competitors truly embrace the impossible. Our partnership begins in 2025 when Defender will showcase its capability and durability as the official car of the event, but we are already looking to the future and entering a Defender Dakar works team from 2026.”
