MM Technology was surely jazzed with how the 2025 Dakar Rally shook out for the new EVO 4 truck. After team leader Martin Macík Jr. led a 1–2 finish for the EVO 4 at the Rallye du Maroc, he did it again en route to his second consecutive Dakar title.

Macík’s EVO 4, nicknamed “Benny the Big Guy”, was one of nine MM-built trucks in Saudi Arabia. Three, including Benny, were EVO 4s with Kees Koolen and Mitchel van den Brink in the others. MM also built trucks for customers like Claudio Bellina, who split driving duties with MotoGP alumnus and Dakar bike stage winner Danilo Petrucci until Bellina had to retire due to a sudden drop in blood pressure.

“I won’t lie, I was nervous,” conceded Martin Macík Sr., director of MM Technology. “The guys had a solid lead, but anything could have happened. An incident could have meant not finishing the stage, and that would have been a disaster.”

Van den Brink, only 22 years old, got off to a hot start when he won the first two stages including the Prologue. However, the axle broke shortly after starting the Chrono Stage and left him with drive in only three wheels and cost him an hour. Despite finishing third in Stage #3, he lost the lead to Macík after overheating tires caused one to go flat. He rebounded with a Stage #6 win, his fourth at Dakar to surpass his father Martin’s three, only for a multi-belt to break the following day.

Macík overcame getting stuck in silt to win the Chrono Stage, then solidified his advantage going into the rest day with two more stage wins. Aleš Loprais, now in an IVECO from Team de Rooy after switching from Praga, won stages at the same clip and ended the race with five victories like Macík.

However, Loprais was in too deep of a hole from the first half of the rally. A day after winning Stage #3, he stopped thrice due to flat tires and was unable to replenish his stock in time. He then lost 90 minutes in Stage #5 because all but one of his leaf springs broke from stress. A brief electronic failure in Stage #6 provided an annoying hindrance, though it was fortunately his last technical concern tge rest of the way.

With Macík too far away to catch, the battle for second raged on. Van den Brink’s approach was to drive as close to his rivals as possible, hanging behind Macík and Loprais even when the other truck is driving slowly.

“Mitchel stuck to us like a tick,” Loprais’ David Křípal recalled after the penultimate stage. “As soon as we got stuck somewhere, he immediately stopped and waited to see where we would go and what would happen. Only then did he start driving again.

“He overtook us for a moment, but then he also got stuck. When Martin Macík got stuck, they immediately helped each other. They applied the team strategy and tried to hold on as best they could.”

By the end, van den Brink’s strategy worked as he held off Loprais for second by five minutes. Macík beat both of them by over two hours; he is the first non-Russian driver to win the Truck class in back to back years fellow Czech and Loprais’ uncle Karel in 1998 and 1999.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with the victory, even if I don’t quite show it,” said Macík. “The entire team, including the guys in the cab, worked tirelessly, and it was anything but a walk in the park. Expectations were high.”

Kees Koolen, who finished second in Morocco to Macik in his EVO 4 nicknamed “Tony”, was fourth. Loprais’ teammate Vaidotas Žala, who made the switch to a truck from cars, rounded out the top five ahead of the elder van den Brink.

Richard de Groot finished seventh in Macík’s EVO 3 truck with which he won the 2024 Dakar. Tomáš Vrátný’s funky Tatra FF7 truck was ninth after dealing with a malfunctioning front differential lock in Stage #3.

“The FF7 is without a doubt the best car I have ever been in,” said Vrátný’s mechanic Jaromir Martinec. The truck, designed by Fesh Fesh, was christened by Czech president and Dakar attendee Petr Pavel at its reveal in July. “Even though we have a slightly longer wheelbase, we are more agile in the dunes than some trucks from other brands.”

Teruhito Sugawara placed 13th in a tumultuous race for his Hino 600. Flat tires were the truck’s primary concern throughout the first half of the rally before the first main issue struck on Stage #8 when the oil temperature skyrocketed and the center differential lock failed to engage; Sugawara opted to to just reach the finish regardless of waypoints, knocking him out of the picture. More trouble arose the next day when a hard landing resulted in the transfer case, front axle, and torque rod on the front suspension breaking. Drivetrain issues persisted until the finish.

Jean-François Cazeres was the only assistance truck to be classified as a finisher in 16th.

Overall results

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Class	Time	Margin
1	16	600	Martin Macík Jr.	František Tomášek	David Švanda	MM Technology	T5.1	58:42:58	Leader
2	24	602	Mitchel van den Brink	Jarno van de Pol	Moi Torrallardona	Eurol Rally Sport	T5.1	61:04:11	+ 2:21:13
3	25	601	Aleš Loprais	Darek Rodewald	David Křípal	InstaTrade Loprais Team De Rooy FPT	T5.1	61:09:41	+ 2:26:43
4	37	603	Kees Koolen	Wouter de Graaff	Daniel Kozlowsky	MM Technology	T5.1	64:57:40	+ 6:14:42
5	38	605	Vaidotas Žala	Max Van Grol	Paulo Fiuza	Skuba Team de Rooy FPT	T5.1	66:00:22	+ 7:17:24
6	43	606	Martin van den Brink	Richard Mouw	Willem van Heun	Eurol Rally Sport	T5.1	66:33:41	+ 7:50:43
7	54	610	Richard de Groot	Johannes Hulsebosch	Jan van der Vaet	Firemen Dakarteam	T5.1	70:48:19	+ 12:05:21
8	62	613	Anja Van Loon	Ben van de Laar	Jan van de Laar	Team de Rooy	T5.1	73:44:58	+ 15:02:00
9	81	611	Tomáš Vrátný	Bartłomiej Boba	Jaromir Martinec	Fesh Fesh	T5.1	82:24:22	+ 23:41:24
10	87	616	William de Groot	Koen Hendriks	Remon van der Steen	De Groot Sport	T5.1	88:14:25	+ 29:31:27
11	88	621	Karel Poslední	Lukáš Kvasnica	Filip Škrobánek	Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	89:38:03	+ 30:55:05
12	89	618	Jose Manuel Sabaté	Pol Tibau Roura	Nicholas Jones	Dacia Sandriders	T5.1	89:43:42	+ 31:00:44
13	97	607	Teruhito Sugawara	Hirokazu Somemiya	Yuji Mochizuki	Hino Team Sugawara	T5.1	106:01:35	+ 47:18:37
14	100	604	Martin Šoltys	Vlastimil Miksch	Tomáš Šikola	Buggyra ZM Racing	T5.1	110:26:28	+ 51:43:30
15	114	633	Giulio Verzeletti	Antonio Cabini	Carlo Cabini	Orobica Raid	T5.1	134:12:35	+ 75:29:37
16	132	630	Jean-François Cazeres	Nicolas Falloux	Jerome Detoullon	Team Boucou Competition	T5.2	171:32:42	+ 112:49:44
17	133	615	Maurik van den Heuvel	Wilko van Oort	Martijn van Rooij	Dakarspeed	T5.1	179:06:23	+ 120:34:25
18	135	625	Alberto Herrero	Pedro Peñate	Mario Rodriguez	TH-Trucks Team	T5.1	204:13:55	+ 145:30:57
DNF	DNF	608	Claudio Bellina	Marco Arnoletti	Danilo Petrucci	MM Technology	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	609	Ben de Groot	Ad Hofmans	Govert Boogard	De Groot Sport	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	617	Miklós Kovács	Peter Czegledi	Laszlo Acs	Qualisport	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	619	Paolo Calabria	Giuseppe Fortuna	Loris Calubini	Eagle Racing Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	620	Alex Aguirregaviria	Marc Torres	Francesc Salisi	Tibau Team	T5.1	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	623	Alexandre Lemeray	Marion Andrieu	Fabien Lecaplain	Normandy Racing Solutions	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	626	Tariq Al-Rammah	Samir Benbekhti	Serge Lambert	STA Competition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	627	Michael Baumann	Philipp Beier	Jens Schöler	X-raid Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	628	Tom Geuens	Samuel Koopmann	Anthony Robineau	Overdrive Racing	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	629	Didier Monseu	Charly Gotlib	Edouard Fraipont	Dacia Sandriders	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	631	Zsolt Darázsi	Pierre Calmon	Palco Lubomir	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	632	Philippe Perry	Adria Guillem Gallardo	Florent Drulhon	Team Boucou Competition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	634	Jordi Esteve	Francesc Pardo	Jordi Pujol Fornos	Tibau Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	636	Cesare Ricker	Aldo de Lorenzo	Juan Francisco Silva	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	637	Antoine Vitse	Alain Coquelle	Benoit Liefooghe	Team Solurent	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	638	Dušan Randysek	Laurent Lalanne	Victor Bouchwalder	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	640	Alberto Alonso	Alejandro Mozuelos	Gustavo Ibeas	TH-Trucks Team	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	641	Tomáš Tomeček	Ard Munster	Niccolo Funaioli	South Racing Can-Am	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	643	Sylvain Besnard	Patrick Prot	Sylvain Laliche	RIC Rallye Assistance	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	644	John Cockburn	Louis Lauilhe	Benoit Bonnefoi	STA Competition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	645	Norbert Szalai	Robert Tagai	Fabien Catherine	Team SSP	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	646	Javier Jacoste	Gerard Ribas	Francisco Ester	Jálan Marrones	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	647	David Giovannetti	David Giovannetti	Paco Fernandez	Xtremeplus	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	648	Sebastien Fargeas	Bruno Basire	Marc Dardaillon	Team Boucou Competition	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	649	Jeremie Gimbre	Richard Gonzalez	Franck Maldonado	Sodicars Racing	T5.2	DNF	N/A
DNF	DNF	651	Ahmed Benbekhti	Bruno Seillet	Mickael Fauvel	Rebellion Spierings	T5.2	DNF	N/A

Stage winners

Stage	Winner	Time
Prologue	Mitchel van den Brink	18:03.5
Stage #1	Mitchel van den Brink	5:11:09
Stage #2	Martin Macík Jr.	12:10:51
Stage #3	Aleš Loprais	3:36:21
Stage #4	Martin Macík Jr.	5:02:46
Stage #5	Martin Macík Jr.	5:01:53
Stage #6	Mitchel van den Brink	5:17:19
Stage #7	Aleš Loprais	4:33:31
Stage #8	Martin Macík Jr.	5:26:52
Stage #9	Aleš Loprais	3:20:51
Stage #10	Aleš Loprais	2:22:41
Stage #11	Martin Macík Jr.	4:55:14
Stage #12	Aleš Loprais	1:04:23

Featured image credit: Florent Gooden / DPPI