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.

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

Truck stage winners