2024 Dakar Rally: Martin Macik Jr. finally breaks through for Truck triumph

Martin Macík Jr. hoped to shake off a frustrating 2023 campaign when he came up just short in the Dakar Rally despite winning five stages, then was disqualified from the World Rally-Raid Championship for a noncompliant turbocharger restrictor. While the Truck category no longer has a W2RC trophy, he still achieved his dream of holding up the Bedouin trophy in 2024.

Defending winner and world champion Janus van Kasteren presented himself as the early favourite to repeat when he won three of the first four stages as well as the Prologue, while Macík seemed destined for more trouble when he won Stage #3 only to be slapped with over half an hour in time penalties a day later for missing two waypoints. However, Macík played his cards right during the 48-hour Chrono Stage and got out of the Empty Quarter scot-free, while van Kasteren suffered a mechanical failure during the second day. Although he salvaged a fourth-place run, he still finished three hours behind Macík.

Macík not only survived the Chrono Stage to take the overall lead, but did so in convincing fashion as the leg’s runner-up Mitchel van den Brink was an hour back. Van den Brink also received a fifteen-minute penalty for missing a waypoint, further driving him back. Aleš Loprais, who had been tailing Macík in the overall, moved up to second but was 1:16:42 exiting the Chrono Stage.

With such a healthy cushion, Macík simply needed to complete the second half of the rally without trouble Loprais and van den Brink were left fighting with one another for second. Although the latter won Stage #8, a broken transmission mounting rod and jack failure while fixing a flat tyre in Stage #10 effectively prevented him from catching Loprais for the spot.

Although Macík only won one stage during the second half of the rally, he finished runner-up in every stage from the eighth through eleventh to further build his advantage. Even as Loprais won the final two days and Macík finished fifth on the twelfth leg, Macík still beat him by nearly two hours.

Macík is the first Czech driver to win the Dakar’s truck category since Loprais’ uncle Karel in 2001. IVECO also now has a two-race win streak, the first time a manufacturer besides KAMAZ—who remains barred from entering as is MAZ—has won the class consecutive in consecutive years since the older Loprais with Tatra in 1998 and 1999.

“I’ve already used up all my emotions so I’m not gonna pour it all out there, but it was incredible,” said Macík at the finish. “We crossed the finish line, I was searching for words for a while and then it all started to come out. My dad arrived, it took him a while but he got here, and then we just shared out feelings in a way that you don’t see very often. I’ve been thinking about the last 23 years, my dad decided to race in the Dakar, and here we are as the victors.”

While not a win, Aleš Loprais still notched his best career finish with his last Dakar podiums being a pair of thirds in 2007 and 2008. It was a strong rebound after he elected to withdraw from the 2023 race while leading following the death of a spectator. He also recorded the first Dakar podium for Praga.

Like his father Martin in 2023, van den Brink finished third for his maiden podium, beating van Kasteren for the last spot by an hour. Martin was eliminated from contention by a rollover in Stage #2.

Teruhito Sugawara tied his best finish as the lead driver of sixth, equalling his 2018 effort. While he and his Hino 600 were navigating the dunes of Saudi Arabia in the official Dakar Rally, father Yoshimasa was concurrently competing in the ‘other’ Dakar rally, the Africa Eco Race that follows the Dakar’s original route. Teruhito’s finish continued the family-led Hino team’s streak of completed Dakars to thirty-three in a row.

Gert Huzink‘s hybrid Renault truck missed the top ten in eleventh, but managed to win two stages. Pascal de Baar, who beat him for tenth, used to race for Huzink’s team before taking over Buggyra Racing‘s new Tatra Buggyra Evo3 in relief of the injured Martin Šoltys.

Behind the two, Anja Van Loon was twelfth in her first Dakar in a truck. She led an all-female crew with Floor Maten and Marije van Ettekoven, the second such team to race a truck after Véronique Jacquot, Géraldine Brucy, and Uta Baier finished twenty-ninth in 2004.

“I am so happy and proud,” Van Loon stated. “It was a really tough rally, but together with Floor and Marije we drove almost flawlessly. This is truly a dream come true. We came here to finish and now we just finished twelfth overall, which is better than I could have hoped for. I am very proud of those girls, what a great achievement this is.”

Truck overall standings

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Mechanic	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	601	Martin Macík Jr.	František Tomášek	David Švanda	MM Technology	T5.1	54:34:48	Leader
2	602	Aleš Loprais	Jaroslav Valtr Jr.	Jiří Stross	InstaForex Loprais Praga Team	T5.1	56:29:27	+ 1:54:39
3	603	Mitchel van den Brink	Moisès Torrallardona	Jarno van de Pol	Eurol Rally Sport	T5.1	59:04:14	+ 4:29:26
4	600	Janus van Kasteren	Darek Rodewald	Marcel Snijders	Boss Machinery Team de Rooy	T5.1	59:56:52	+ 5:22:04
5	622	Michiel Becx	Wulfert van Ginkel	Edwin Kuijpers	Becx Team de Rooy	T5.1	66:09:20	+ 11:34:32
6	609	Teruhito Sugawara	Hirokazu Somemiya	Yuji Mochizuki	Hino Team Sugawara	T5.1	71:57:42	+ 17:22:54
7	610	Claudio Bellina	Bruno Gotti	Marco Arnoletti	MM Technology	T5.1	73:07:22	+ 18:32:34
8	617	Ben de Groot	Govert Boogaard	Ad Hofmans	De Groot Sport	T5.1	75:01:26	+ 20:26:38
9	607	Richard de Groot	Jan Hulsebosch	Martijn Johannes Martinus van Rooij	Firemen Dakarteam	T5.1	101:36:17	+ 47:01:29
10	605	Pascal de Baar	Giso Verschoor	Tomáš Šikola	Tatra Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	110:40:35	+ 56:05:47
11	615	Gert Huzink	Martin Roesink	Rob Buursen	Jongbloed Dakar Team	T5.1	115:41:59	+ 61:07:11
12	618	Anja Van Loon	Floor Maten	Marije van Ettekoven	Ladies Team de Rooy	T5.1	117:21:01	+ 62:46:13
13	635	Michal Valtr	Jaroslav Miškolci	Radim Kaplanek	Valtr Racing Team	T5.1	118:31:21	+ 63:56:33
14	637	Miklós Kovács	Péter Czeglédi	László Ács	Qualisport Racing	T5.1	119:51:49	65:17:01
15	611	Gerrit Zuurmond	Tjeerd van Ballegooy	Klaas Kwakkel	Rainbow Truck Team	T5.1	124:12:54	+ 69:38:06
16	628	Gianandrea Pellegrinelli	Giulio Minelli	Carlo Galdini	MM Technology	T5.1	134:04:56	+ 79:30:08
17	619	Albert Llovera	Margot Llobera	Marc Torres	Fesh Fesh Team	T5.1	143:42:39	+ 89:07:51
18	604	Jaroslav Valtr	René Kilián	David Kilian	Tatra Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	146:56:30	+ 92:21:42
19	606	Martin van den Brink	Jan van der Vaet	Rijk Mouw	Eurol Rally Sport	T5.1	153:52:19	+ 99:17:31
20	626	Daniel Stiblik	Lukáš Kvasnica	Jiří Tomec	Tatra Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	190:04:44	+ 135:29:56
DNF	608	Victor Versteijnen	Andre van der Sande	Teun van Dal	Verteijnen Truck Racing	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	613	Vaidotas Paškevičius	Albert Veliamovic	Gytis Gaspariūnas	Fesh Fesh Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	614	Egbert Wingens	Gerard van Veenendaal	Philipp Rettig	Team Boucou Assistance (South Racing Can-Am)	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	616	Igor Bouwens	Syndiely Wade	Ulrich Boerboom	Gregoor Racing Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	620	William de Groot	Tom Brekelmans	Jos van der Pas	De Groot Sport	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	623	Pep Sabaté	Pol Tibau	Jordi Montaner Busquets	Tibau Team (Bahrain Raid Xtreme)	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	624	Steven Rotsaert	Benny Raes	Lins Didier	RTS Racing (Overdrive Racing)	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	625	Alberto Herrero	Susana Hernando Ines	Mario Rodríguez	TH-Trucks Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	627	Jérémie Demarty	Philippe Pedeche	Philippe Perry	Team Boucou Assistance	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	629	Michael Baumann	Philipp Beier	Sebastian Lindner	Q Motorsport Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	630	Dave Berghmans	Sam Koopmann	Bob Geens	Overdrive Racing	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	631	Jordi Esteve	Francisco José Pardo Benito	Raul Arteaga Rodriguez	Tibau Team (X Rally Team)	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	632	Guillaume Manelphe	Jean-François Cazères	Nicolas Falloux	Team Boucou Assistance	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	633	Tariq Al-Rammah	Samir Benbekhti	John Cockburn	STA Competition	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	634	Thomas Robineau	Sylvain Laliche	Jérémie Gimbre	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	636	Cesare Rickler	Aldo de Lorenzo	Dario de Lorenzo	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	638	Didier Monseu	Charly Gotlib	Edouard Fraipont	Bahrain Raid Xtreme	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	639	Manuel Borrero	Emilio Fiz del Teso	Juan Francisco Silva Piñeiro	Tibau Team (YunXiang Racing)	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	640	Norbert Szalai	Frédéric Becart	Pavel Fasko	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	641	Zsolt Darazsi	Pierre Calmon	Tibor Lener	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	642	Alberto Romero	Alejandro Mozuelos	Gustavo Ibas Perez	TH-Trucks Team (Sodicars Racing)	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	643	Dusan Randysek	Victor Bouchwalder	Laurent Lalanne	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	644	Francesc Ester Fernandez	Javier Jacoste	José María Fontdevila	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	645	Marco Piana	David Giovannetti	Paco Fernandez	Xtremeplus	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	646	Sebastien Fargeas	Eric Simonin	Armando Loureiro	Team Boucou Assistance	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	648	Dave Ingels	Jens Schöler	Johannes Schotanus	Q Motorsport Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	651	Ahmed Benbekhti	Bruno Seillet	Mickael Fauvel	STA Competition (Rebellion Racing)	T5.2	DNF	N/A

Truck stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Janus van Kasteren	19:34
Stage #1	Janus van Kasteren	4:55:25
Stage #2	Janus van Kasteren	4:36:12
Stage #3	Martin Macík Jr.	5:01:08
Stage #4	Janus van Kasteren	3:00:49
Stage #5	Martin Macík Jr.	1:52:25
Stage #6	Martin Macík Jr.	8:35:53
Stage #7	Martin Macík Jr.	5:40:52
Stage #8	Mitchel van den Brink	3:38:27
Stage #9	Gert Huzink	5:04:34
Stage #10	Gert Huzink	3:40:39
Stage #11	Aleš Loprais	5:18:50
Stage #12	Aleš Loprais	1:56:41