(MAHWAH, N.J.) – September 23, 2019 – Today, Land Rover announced an off-road driving skills competition for its North American retailers, Land Rover TReK 2020, to be held this year during the launch of the highly anticipated New Land Rover Defender. With the launch of the New Defender, the Land Rover product lineup will expand to three families of highly-capable vehicles: Range Rover, Discovery and Defender.

Land Rover TReK 2020 is a two-day competition for Land Rover Retailer staff, comprised of a preliminary qualifying event and final event, designed to educate and challenge sales, service and technician personnel with a variety of first-hand off-road experiences. The competition combines skills testing in off-road driving, navigation and team collaboration to test some of the best off-road driving experts across the U.S. and Canada.

This year’s competition will pit 53 three-person teams – each representing the various sales regions for Land Rover across the U.S. and Canada – against each other in head to head team and group challenges. The teams will compete in a series of 53 identically customized 2020 Land Rover Discovery SUVs for the preliminary qualifying trials taking place this week at the Land Rover Experience Center at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

The winning team from each wave of the competition will then head to the TReK Finals held in January 2020 in Palm Springs, California, where they will compete with the New 2020 Land Rover Defender.

“With the return of the Land Rover Defender in 2020, we are thrilled to bring back the TReK competition to put our vehicles – and the skills of our retailers – to the ultimate test,” said Kim McCullough, Vice President of Marketing, Jaguar Land Rover North America. “This competition is a great way to engage our retailer network, push their off-road driving skills to the max and have some fun.”

The reintroduction of the TReK competition is timed ahead of the return of the Defender family to the Land Rover brand. The previous generation model of the Defender ceased global production in 2016 and has been absent from the U.S. market for more than 20 years, last being offered for the 1997 model year.

The original TReK competition was established in 1996 in the image of the iconic Camel Trophy as a U.S.-specific activity for the retailer network to bolster their off-road expertise in one day of immersive off-roading. From 1996 through 2003 these annual competitions were held across the country. In 2001, following five years of success in North America, TReK expanded its influence when the first global TReK competition was held in South Africa. The last Land Rover TReK competition was held in 2003 in Colorado.

For more information about the New Land Rover Defender, including the opportunity to register your interest, visit the link below.