The Land Rover Defender will appear at every World Rally-Raid Championship round for three seasons from 2026 to 2028, Jaguar Land Rover announced on Friday. Two Defenders will contest the full schedule, while a third will be a Dakar Rally-only entry.

Land Rover first unveiled the rally raid division in November, during which the ASO also announced the Defender as the official car partner of the Dakar Rally. 20 Defenders are on site in Saudi Arabia for race personnel and VIPs.

The arrival of the Defenders hopes to add more variety to the Stock class, which has been dominated by Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body for over a decade. The category has also routinely only appeared at the Dakar and Rallye du Maroc rather than every W2RC round. According to Dakar race director David Castera, Ford and Nissan could also be interested thanks to new FIA Stock regulations like a spending cap.

The new rules were finalized too late to stimulate Stock participation for the 2025 Dakar Rally, and consequently Akira Miura and Ronald Basso of Toyota Auto Body are the only entrants.

“We have chosen to compete in the Stock category to showcase the toughness and dependability of the production Defender vehicles,” explained Defender managing director Mark Cameron. “There’s much work to do over the next 12 months, but with Defender works program testing and development well under way, the team are already embracing the ultimate motorsport adventure that lays ahead from 2026.”

Defenders are currently used in the Defender Rally Series, which is primarily a stage rally championship but has dabbled in cross-country by collaborating with the Carta Rallye and Baja Morocco. Two Land Rovers are currently competing in the adjacent Dakar Classic with Maxence Gublin and Anthony Sousa in a Land Rover Defender 110, while Karolis Raišys and Ignas Daunoravičius are piloting a 1978 Land Rover 109 Series III.

Featured image credit: Vinicius Cabral / FOTOP