It’s an historic day for a brand that already has quite the off-roading resumé. British off-road legend Defender finished first, second and fourth in the most grueling off-road race in the world: the Dakar Rally. While Land Rover Defenders and Range Rovers have competed successfully in the Dakar and other off-road contests such as the Camel Trophy for decades, this is the first time there’s been a factory-backed effort running at Dakar.
Taking place across 8,000 kilometres of dust, sand dunes, rocks and a few strips of tarmac here and there, the latest edition of the “Everest of Motorsport” took place from January 4th-17th of this year. Each of the three Defenders entered – cars #500, 502 and 504 – carried one driver and one co-driver, or navigator. It was car #502 with driver Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal in the left seat finishing atop the podium in the T2 Production Class. Their steed, the Defender D7X-R, may not look like a standard Defender OCTA, but aside from differently shaped bumpers, larger tires and of course the requisite roll-cage and performance interior adds, it shares much of its guts with the all-new V8-powered OCTA you can pick up at your local Defender dealer today.
“Dreams come true you know, and it was my dream to win Dakar,” said Baciuška. “For the first year for Defender, it’s amazing.”
Second place went to driver Sara Price and her teammate, Sean Berriman in Defender #504. Price came just short of being only the second woman to win Dakar in the race’s 48-year history. With this year’s race, she added numerous Dakar stage wins to a resumé that also includes national motocross championships and podium finishes at the X Games.
“We had a goal at the final stage to get to the finish line as a team together,” she said. “So to see the whole Defender team sitting there at the finish line and all their excitement and emotions, it just shows what this is all about and what it means.”
Rounding out the Defender effort in fourth place were Dakar veteran (and multiple winner) Stéphane Peterhansel and Mika Metge. “It was a Dakar with full emotion – sometimes up, sometimes down,” said Peterhansel. “But the main target was to win the Stock class, and Rokas finished first and Sara second…it was nice adventure with a super good team [and] super team spirit between all the members.”
With that victory in the books, it’s time for the Defender team to turn its focus to the next challenge in the five-event World Rally-Raid Championship: the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal in mid-March.
Want more? Subscribe to the ViCARious print edition and read our exclusive behind-the-scenes first-person deep-dive into the Dakar and team Defender from on the ground at this year’s event!