It is the World’s greatest desert race, and the Land Rover Defender is coming to the party. Perhaps you should, too!
Where the Baja 1000 is a difficult race, Dakar is a whole other thing. Just considering it puts you in need of therapy, and perhaps the Sahara Desert is the ultimate place to let go of your troubles and test what you’re made of.
“A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind.”
Considered the Everest of off- road rallying, the Dakar desert race is testament to grit and determination, both for the vehicle and the participants. In comparison, the Baja 1000 is 1000 miles of non-stop action where the Dakar is broken up into 13 days of 2 to 3 hundred mile sections. According to those who have run them both, the Dakar is the toughest desert race on the planet.
photo courtesy – Own work
The adventure began back in 1977, when Thierry Sabine got lost on his motorbike in the Libyan desert during the Abidjan-Nice Rally. Saved from the sands in extremis, he returned to France still in thrall to this landscape and promising himself he would share his fascination with as many people as possible. He proceeded to come up with a route starting in Europe, continuing to Algiers and crossing Agadez before eventually finishing at Dakar. The founder coined a motto for his inspiration: “A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind.”
Originally run from Paris to Dakar, bad actors in Mauritania, led the event to be held in Saudi Arabia since 2020.
Madness it was, and continues to be, challenging the machines and the men and women piloting them, the present Dakar rally-raid is truly…a unique event sparked by the spirit of adventure, open to all riders and carrying a message of friendship between all men, has never failed to challenge, surprise and excite. Over the course of almost thirty years, it has generated innumerable sporting and human stories.
Where the Baja 1000 has nearly unlimited restrictions on what you build, the Dakar, attempts to level the playing field via rules (see below) on airflow restrictors and the classes, with the most bragging rights going to the factory machines there to display why you should run down to your dealer and buy one, even though you are probably just making grocery runs in your SUV.
Land Rover’s Defender has just partnered with the 2025 Dakar rally, placing a fleet of Defenders available for race officials to media events and scouting future routes for the event itself. The real work for Land Rover, however, should really start in 2026, when a Defender Works Team will compete.
“Anyone who loves motorsport will have a passion for Dakar,” said JLR’s motorsport managing director James Barclay. “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. Our first time ever with a factory entry into the Dakar means we are right at the beginning of our journey”.
Most contemplating the Dakar rally ask the same questions:
What are the rules? How do you register? Do I need to provide my own camel? What is the entry fee?
Answering all those questions is female Saudi racer Dania Akeel who tells you all you need to know HERE.
Saudi Arabian driver Dania Akeel knows the deserts of the Dakar better than most. The local favourite scored an outstanding Top 10 finish on her Dakar debut in the Challenger class. Since then she’s raised her own expectations and further impressed during the W2RC season. Akeel has ambitions to race in the Dakar’s Ultimate class, but for now, she has unfinished business in the Challenger race alongside co-driver Stéphane Duple.
2026 dates for the Dakar Rally have yet to be determined but the event is always held in early January,, the coolest month of the year.
