“I actually like the French aversion to queuing”
CREW FACTS
J.C.
- John has been “obsessed” with motorsport his whole adult life, joking that the passion he discovered as a 17-year-old has “cost him a fortune”.
- The 59-year-old has raced in a host of cross-country championships and events both at home and abroad and currently runs the Land Rover Defender Rally Series which is designed to take UK rally raid novices all the way to international level competition.
- John was supposed to take part in his first Dakar in 2008, as a navigator for Greg Macleod. But after the rally was cancelled, he had to wait another four years to make his Dakar debut, driving a truck for the now defunct RallyRaid UK team.
- On the road to Lima he met Michel Saumet, who invited him to return as a navigator for Dakar legend Etienne Smulevici in 2016. John has since found himself working with some of the most experienced names on the Dakar scene, including driving an assistance truck for PH-Sport.
- This year the Scottish engineer will once again be driving for the STA Competition, providing rapid assistance for the BTR team. It means he will be forgoing the dubious culinary delights of a traditional Scottish New Year, but accepts that is the price he must pay for his Dakar passion!
2025 AMBITIONS
J.C.: “As usual I don’t actually know who my teammates will be and I don’t suppose STA will tell me until just before the start of the rally. Fortunately, I’m pretty easy to get on with, which is probably why they keep asking me to come back. By my reckoning this will be my ninth Dakar, which might well make me the Scot with the most Dakar participations to their name! I’m also unusual for someone from my island in that I actually like how the French go about things, especially their aversion to queuing - I even speak their language! Apart from the Dakar I’m very busy with the Land Rover Defender Rally Series, particularly the foreign rounds -which will hopefully bring a few more British competitors into rally raid. And when I not running around on rally raids my haulage business keeps me out of mischief.”