Race2Recovery Confirm Dakar Dream Still Alive As Focus Turns To Team’s Race Truck

The retirement of the team's two race cars on Stage 2 means all attention turns to team's T4 race truck 

Chilecito, Argentina, 9 January 2014.  Race2Recovery, the group of injured soldiers and civilian volunteers who made history as the first disabled rally team to complete the Dakar rally in 2013, has confirmed that its current 2014 Dakar challenge is still alive.  Having been forced to retire its two race cars after Stage 2 of this year's race the team will now focus all efforts on its remaining T4 race truck.

Race2Recovery, sponsored by Land Rover, had entered two race cars and a T4 race truck into the 2014 Dakar.  Initially, the main role of the T4 truck was to enter each stage to support the two race cars along the route.  Entering a race truck as a support vehicle is a widely adopted strategy by Dakar teams, enabling them to rescue vehicles when stuck, provide mechanical and technical assistance, and also help ensure maximum safety for race crews.  The challenge for the truck is that it must also make it to the end of each stage in order to continue in the race.  With the exit of both Race2Recovery vehicles competing in the cars class, the team can now make the race truck its sole focus to achieve the goal of completing the Dakar for a second year running.

The truck's crew includes driver Mark Cullum, from Hereford, co‑driver Chris Ratter, from Knutsford, and injured serviceman Daniel Whittingham, from Nottingham, who is an amputee after injuries sustained in an IED explosion in Afghanistan.  During Stage 2, the truck's crew showed true Dakar spirit when they risked missing the stage deadline in order to assist another team whose race car, and support truck, had become stranded.  With the rest of the team waiting nervously at the team's end‑of‑stage bivouac, the T4 race truck finally arrived and it was confirmed that Race2Recovery's Dakar adventure would live another day.

Speaking from the team's bivouac in Chilecito, Argentina, driver and team founder Tony Harris said: "I'm extremely proud of the reaction of our team.  Having to retire two race cars was a big blow but the whole team committed to working as hard as possible to keep our T4 race truck in this year's Dakar.  Our dream of finishing for a second year running is very much alive, although we're conscious there is a long way to go.  The crew did a fantastic thing, turning around to help another stranded team, and for that act alone they deserve to continue on this adventure.  We're receiving amazing support from spectators and other teams and we'll do everything we can to repay their faith in us.  The longer we stay in the competition, the more exposure we can give to the charities that we're supporting, such as Help For Heroes, Tedworth House, The Baton and Blesma."

Race2Recovery operates to the motto 'beyond injury, achieving the extraordinary' and has raised over £250,000 for military charities including Tedworth House and Help for Heroes.  The team's lead sponsor, Land Rover, has also confirmed that it will support the team's entry into the new Defender Challenge by Bowler rally series that will launch in the UK in spring 2014.  Race2Recovery can use this competition to gain further experience ahead of future Dakar challenges as well as using it as an ideal platform to train up new recruits.

People wishing to find out more about Race2Recovery should visit www.race2recovery.com and www.uk.media.landrover.com

‑ENDS‑

CONTACTS

PR CONTACT:  Jim Williams, Fast Track   jim.williams@fasttrackagency.com  07814 068349LAND ROVER PR CONTACT:  Kim Palmer  kpalmer@landrover.com  07795 666 169

NOTES TO EDITORS

2014 Race2Recovery Team:

About Land Rover

Land Rover is the lead sponsor for Race2Recovery.  Since 1948 Land Rover has been manufacturing authentic 4x4s that represent true breadth of capability across the model range. Defender, Freelander, Discovery, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque each define the world's 4x4 sectors. Land Rover products are currently sold in approximately 180 global markets.

About the Dakar Rally:

The Dakar, an incomparable human adventure whose history has been built in the finest deserts of the planet, is amongst the major sporting challenges of our era. Both a race and a test of navigational skills, it involves not only the leading riders and drivers of the rally raid discipline, but also amateur competitors, who often take part to make their dream come true or to rise to a challenge, behind the handlebars or steering wheel of their bike, quad, car or truck. Fifty nationalities come together each year for this mixture of competition and solidarity whose television coverage is seen by a billion viewers in 190 countries.

The Dakar Rally (or simply 'The Dakar', formerly known as 'The Paris‑Dakar') is an annual Dakar Series rally raid off‑road race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race originated in 1978, a year after racer Thierry Sabine got lost in the desert and decided that it would be a good location for a regular rally event. Originally, the rally was from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal. However, due to politics and other factors, the course, including origin and destination, has varied over the years. After cancellation of the rally in 2008, the 2009 Dakar Rally was run in South America (Argentina and Chile) ‑ the first time the race took place outside of Europe and Africa. It has stayed in South America since 2009. The race is open to amateur and professional entries with amateurs typically making up about 80% of participants.

Despite its name it is an off‑road endurance race, called a rally‑raid rather than a conventional rally ‑ the terrain the competitors traverse is much tougher and the vehicles used by teams and individuals are true off‑road vehicles rather than the modified on‑road vehicles used in rallies. The majority of the competitive special sections are off‑road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass and rocks among others.

The Dakar 2014 course, which stretches over 9000km of the world's toughest terrain, begins in Rosario, Argentina on 5th January, with the course winding north through Argentina, into Bolivia and finishing in Valparaiso, Chile on 18 January.

www.dakar.com

About the Defender Challenge

The Defender Challenge by Bowler is a one‑make rally series operated by Bowler Motorsport designed to act as a feeder series to the annual Dakar rally and other global rally competitions.

Continuing the strategic partnership announced in 2012 between Land Rover and Bowler Motorsport, the Defender Challenge will see competition‑prepared Land Rover Defenders being used in a one‑make, seven round, rally series taking place across the UK. The series will be regulated by the MSA (Motor Sports Association) and each Defender Challenge car will be FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) compliant enabling competitors to compete internationally.

The Defender Challenge will provide both experienced competitors, and those with no prior competition experience, a platform to gain the experience required to compete in world‑class rally events. For those with no or little experience, the series will offer a complete solution for gaining a licence, training and development and ultimately, competition experience.