Marek Goczał and his son Eryk are moving up to the Ultimate class. On Monday, EnergyLandia Rally Team announced the two will race Toyota Hilux Overdrives in the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship and 2026 Dakar Rally.

The Goczałs had impressed in UTVs, enjoying success in both the purpose-built Challenger and production SSV classes. Eryk won the latter at the 2023 Dakar Rally at just 18 years of age before the family moved up to the former at that year’s Rallye du Maroc, where Marek won. The two and Eryk’s uncle Michał also dominated Challenger in the first half of the 2024 Dakar before being disqualified for a noncompliant clutch.

Erk made up for it by winning the Rallye du Maroc last October with Marek finishing right behind.

Although EnergyLandia eventually became the official factory team of the Taurus T3 Max, which is currently dominating the Dakar, the Goczałs opted to skip the race due to disagreements with the ASO concerning if Eryk’s mother Agata could be there. Her credentials had been revoked shortly before the disqualifications at last year’s event. Despite skipping Dakar, they intend to rejoin the W2RC starting with the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in February.

The family had been testing the Hilux in Morocco. Eryk described it as a “Taurus on steroids” that he thought would be “something uncontrollable” but ended up being the opposite. Marek compared driving the Hilux to receiving a “tailored suit”.

“I always say that you should never give up Sometimes you have to take a step back to gain momentum later,” Eryk followed up. “I think this year’s Dakar was such a step, but now we are back in the action. The brief calmness in our team does not meant that we have stopped. It was the calm before the storm.”

The Hilux is considered one of the top rally raid cars today, having won all three editions of the W2RC manufacturer’s championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing. The latter, a Belgian outfit, leases Hiluxes to customer and privateer teams like EnergyLandia.

Featured image credit: Abstraxi Motorsport Design