Land Rover Takes Charity Inclined Approach; Helps wounded Veterans

Land Rover has recently announced the initiation of their campaign to help support Road2Recovery, a campaign to help wounded service personnel realize their dream of completing the Dakar Rally in January, 2013. They also intend to raise awareness and money for charities like Help for Heroes that support the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. This will be the first ever attempt by an amputated driver and co-driver in the Dakar Rally and will feature a 31 member amateur rally team of wounded soldiers.

Land Rover has promised to supply the teams’ material and financial needs by helping them with support vehicles and Land Rover engines for their rally cars. This also includes off-road driving training, spare parts supply, PR and marketing support. The rally teams’ four vehicles, Qt Wildcat will be based on the Land Rover Defender platform and will retain the standard Land Rover engines, axles and a few cosmetic parts.

Mark Cameron, Land Rover Brand Experience Director, Global Marketing, said “Competing in the Dakar Rally will challenge the team to go beyond their life-changing events. The determination and mental attitude required by the team to take part in the world’s toughest rally raid epitomizes the human spirit of adventure, determination and teamwork. Land Rover is pleased to support the rehabilitation of the courageous individuals within the team, and to help them positively impact on a much larger number of their fellow service personnel through the money they are raising.”

The Race2Recovery Dakar team includes the following:

. Driver Captain Tony Harris (one leg amputated below knee)
. Co-driver Corporal Tom Neathway (triple amputee)
. Team Manager Warrant Officer Andrew ‘Pav’ Taylor (spinal fusion)
. Co-driver Corporal Phillip Gillespie (leg amputated below knee)
. Mechanic Corporal Wayne Williams (paralysed vocal cord)

The team is also helped by several experienced rally raid drivers including Pierre de Frenne, Team Principal, and Quinn Evans, a co-driver who has finished as high as fourth place in the Dakar. While preparing for the Dakar Rally, the Race2Recovery team is also entering a number of competitive rally events in the next seven months, including the Pharaons Rally Raid in Egypt in October. The Dakar Rally Raid will cover over 9,000 km in 15 days through Peru, Argentina and Chile in January 2013.

Read More on : click here to read more on Land Rover Defender