After finishing second in Truck at this year’s Dakar Rally, Mitchel van den Brink hopes to step up his game in 2026 with a newer truck. If Eurol Rally Sport can get the funding together, the team will head to the 2026 race with two trucks once again.

While Mitchel pilots a new IVECO EVO 4 from MM Technology, father Martin van den Brink will take over his son’s 2025 truck.

The younger van den Brink has been racing Dakar as a truck driver since 2021, gradually improving in overall finish. He switched to an MM EVO 4 for 2025, winning the Prologue and two stages before placing second in class. Incidentally, he lost to MM Technology head Martin Macík Jr.

MM made slight upgrades to the EVO 4 for 2026 like introducing digital mirrors. Besides Macík and Mitchel, the EVO 4 will also be piloted by Darek Łysek in his Dakar debut.

“We finished fourth in 2023, third in 2024, and second this year,” Mitchel said. “It would be fantastic to continue that trend.

“We’re going to do everything we can to start with two trucks again in 2026. We’ve ordered a new, and possibly even better, truck from MM Technology. We want to make a serious bid for victory with this.

“The IVECO truck will get a few updates and will then be exactly the same. We have two equivalent EVO 4 trucks. In that respect, we’ve never been in such a good position.”

Martin will be making his 18th Dakar start in 2026, having competed since 2009 and finishing as high as third in 2023 with a stage win. Besides competing, he doubles as a quick service truck in case something happens to his son.

“It’s a great task and a wonderful challenge to try to help Mitchel to victory,” Martin commented. “The plan is there. In the coming period, we have to arrange everything behind the scenes. Besides filling out the team and the crews, the most important goal is to secure the budget for the 2026 Dakar Rally.

“We will do everything we can to achieve that from now on.”

Besides Dakar, Mitchel won the Morocco Desert Challenge in the SSV class in April while Martin finished second in T5.1. The former is also competing for the FIA World Baja Cup, winning the Baja Greece.

Featured image credit: MMphoto