Meet the injured armed forces team taking on the desert in Dacia Dusters

[Skipper ✪]

The hardscrabble town of Boudenib, the base for the opening stages of this year’s Carta Rallye, is nestled on the edge of the Sahara desert, 10 miles or so from the Algerian border in the far east of Morocco. Not that you’d know it from the weather. As the assembled crews prepare all manner of outlandish rally-raid machinery for the seven-day, 1250-mile marathon, including Dakar-honed Mitsubishi Pajeros, spaceframe buggies and monstrous trucks, the rain is lashing down, a bracing wind is causing havoc and the desert scrubland has become a Glastonbury-esque mud bath.

In the unexpected downpour, the spirits of the competitors are as leaden as the grey skies. But one crew stands out – and not just because, amid all the heavily modified rally cars, their three Dacia Dusters look as though they’ve been wheeled in from a showroom. They’re briskly carrying out their tasks with no regard for the rain, pausing only to trade jokes and banter. “This is what we do,” says Scott Garthley, shrugging. “It’s just basic training for us.” Given the 14 members of the Future Terrain team are all current or former military service personnel, he’s not exaggerating. Many of the team have severe physical injuries. Others have mental injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet there are no complaints, no excuses. They’ve been preparing for the Carta Rallye for months. Rain isn’t going to stop them.

Future Terrain isn’t the first motorsport initiative for injured service personnel, or even the first rally-raid one: Race2Recovery raised money for charity by twice running a team on the Dakar Rally. Although inspired by that project, Future Terrain is very different – and that’s shown by the team’s desert orange Dusters. “We’re here for motorsport, but it’s a background to what we’re really trying to achieve,” says co-founder Grant White. “We could be doing anything, really.” White, a former British Cross Country Championship (BCCC) competitor, helped establish Future Terrain in 2016 after meeting some of the original Race2Recovery team. At the time, BCCC crews could feature a disabled driver or co-driver. The charity successfully argued for crews made up of two disabled competitors. But while cross-country rallying is the focus, there are no Dakar ambitions. White says: “What Race2Recovery achieved by becoming the first team of amputees ever to finish the Dakar Rally was incredible, but the costs of competing weren’t sustainable. Future Terrain was inspired by their success but we want to be more accessible and put the emphasis on real-world training. We hope we’re building on their legacy.”

By focusing on the BCCC, initially in Land Rover Freelanders, Future Terrain could reach 40-50 veterans on a far more modest budget compared with competing in the Dakar Rally and appeal to a wider audience. The team would run one car in the event, giving passenger rides in a second. “The driving becomes a background activity,” says White. “Where the real magic happens is in camp. It’s where people open up about their issues.” The push beyond the BCCC came after Dacia supplied Future Terrain with four diesel Dusters. Three were ready for the Carta: one with a competition-spec roll-cage (allowing it to compete in the BCCC), two with external cages for use in demos and events such as the Carta.