Mitchel van den Brink looked like a natural in his maiden race with a Toyota Hilux, topping seven of eight stages at the Morocco Desert Challenge. In this sport, however, that one off-day was all it took to keep him from winning it all.

Despite destroying the field every day, van den Brink could only finish seventh overall because the Hilux lost its four-wheel drive in Stage 3. Although he eventually got his 25-hour penalty for not completing at least half the special rescinded, his revised stage finish of 18th was still four hours behind the leaders and effectively spelled the end of his overall pursuit.

“We showed how we dominated the entire rally and that we have speed,” said van den Brink. “We’re happy to win seven stages. Of course, it is a shame that we ran into trouble due to technical issues, but there’s nothing we could do about that. That’s just part of the sport. Overall, we’re happy to gain a wealth of experience in a fast car. We learned a great deal again this week. We’re left wanting more.”

Despite an alternator leak, Ronald van Loon took the third day and overall lead as a result of his fellow Dutchman’s troubles and never relinquished it. Vincent Thijs was initially four minutes behind him before fading a bit, then saw his chances fall apart when the suspension failed and he lost the coil springs on both sides of his Hilux in Stage 6. He was able to claw back into second overall, albeit nearly 29 minutes back.

Van Loon had a scare when he nearly hit a spectator in Stage 6, but his own Hilux complied for the most part. Agostino Rizzardi whittled the gap on van Loon down to 11:14 going into the final day, so he had to be a bit aggressive at the Stage 8 start before easing off the gas once he knew he had the win sealed.

“This really is the ultimate achievement for me, and for us,” van Loon told Rallymaniacs, speaking for himself and navigator Erik Lemmen. “We’ve done it in every category now, including the T1+ class. Just two years ago, we were still in the RC2 class, so it’s pretty nice.”

While van den Brink didn’t defend his three straight SSV wins, the crown was still held by a Dutch driver who usually competes in the Dakar Rally’s Truck class. Janus van Kasteren, the 2023 Dakar Truck champion, became the new SSV leader when Paulo Rodrigues‘ control arm and steering column locked up due to the connecting bolt getting lodged late. Rodrigues salvaged a runner-up.

His team Shiver Offroad enjoyed double class victories as Michiel Becx outlasted everyone in T3. Gert Huzink, another Dakar Truck racer, had been contending for the T3 win until he rolled.

2026 was the first year for the Can-Am Cup, which all drivers in Mavericks were eligible for. Van Kasteren claimed the Maverick R Cup as the UTV’s top driver whereas Bas Buijnsters won the Maverick X3 Cup.

Huzink’s cousin Kay, meanwhile, crushed the field in Truck. Rather than his usual Renault hybrid, he opted to compete in an IVECO from Team de Rooy and dominated for the second year in a row. Martin van den Brink, Mitchel’s father, won the first stage only for Huzink to do so the rest of the way. The older van den Brink spent the rally battling with Pedro de Uriarte for second.

While Huzink had every reason to laud the IVECO’s performance, he also stressed he’s “not going to stab Mario (Kress) in the back” and ditch the Renault hybrid. Kress, the head of MKR Technology, developed the Renault trucks for Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid and other Dutch clients.

“We’re going to evaluate things after this rally,” Huzink explained. “Decide what we’ll be doing for the rest of the year, decide which truck we’ll use, and so on. But enough of that for now, it’s time to celebrate.”

Team de Rooy also fielded trucks for those like Darek Łysek and Marnix Leeuw. While the latter had already done January’s Dakar Rally with the team, Łysek decided to try them out as part of his rebranded Hurtimo Rally Team. However, both ran into various trouble such as Łysek tumbling down a dune in Stage 2.

André Thewessen, one of several Dakarians past or present in the race, had a tough rally from the start when he missed a corner and crashed in Stage 1. He then retired the next due to another accident when he overshot a bump. A broken suspension, a broken turbo, a gearbox failure, and a lost belt in the dunes further compounded his troubles. To cap it all off, after the belt issue in Stage 7, he made it back to find local teenagers stowed underneath his service truck. Thewessen was at least glad to make it to the finish, something that others can’t say.

Jos Bijnens crashed shortly after the Stage 5 start. Reigning FIM Bajas Women Trophy champ Alona Ben Natan hit a hole 70 kilometers into Stage 2, throwing her off her bike; her airbag vest did not deploy, resulting in a fractured vertebra. Hugues Moilet was the only DNF in T1 4×2 after a huge accident in Stage 3.

Edward Ruszczyc had a massive Stage 5 crash but was able to rejoin the race the next day after making extensive repairs, though this in turn made the car very unbalanced—with so much brake bias toward the rear after the rebuild, he compared tapping it to pulling the handbrake—and he lost rear-wheel drive too after the driveshaft went out. A connecting rod then pierced the engine block and knocked him out on the last day, but he was still classified eighth in T3.

Raf van der Steen was among the more fortunate after his own challenges. Van der Steen was trapped behind a truck that got stuck in Stage 4, rolled in Stage 5 after being cut off by an SSV, then had to deal with electronics issues two days later. Even so, he fought his way to a second in T1 4×4.

Ernst Amort won the Vintage Cars subclass, which spans both T1 and T2 categories, in his Tomcat Motorsport-prepped Land Rover. He had nearly three hours on Patrice Benoit’s Land Cruiser HDJ80. While there were no vintage bikes like in 2025, old-school trucks showed up courtesy of RR Belgica (in a class for trucks over 15 years of age) and Hamer Rally Team (over 20 years). The latter, despite being over 20 years old, still finished ahead of the modern IVECO of William van Groningen after the latter’s gearbox malfunctioned.

Julien Dalbec battled with David McBride for the bike win and pulled away in the end to win.

The second half of the rally was plagued by several issues outside of the organizers’ control which forced them to repeatedly shorten stage lengths. Increasing tensions between Morocco and Algeria led to the implementation of a no-fly zone that grounded race helicopters for Stages 5 and 6, neutralizing the former for motorcycles and creating detours at the latter. Stage 7 had three quarters lopped off because of heavy rain.

Stage winners

Stage	Bikes	Cars	SSVs	Trucks
Stage 1	Julien Dalbec	Mitchel van den Brink	Paulo Rodrigues	Martin van den Brink
Stage 2	David McBride	Mitchel van den Brink	Paulo Rodrigues	Kay Huzink
Stage 3	Joris Van Dyck	Ronald van Loon	Willem Meijer	Kay Huzink
Stage 4	Wouter de Graaff	Mitchel van den Brink	Janus van Kasteren	Kay Huzink
Stage 5	Dennis Verswijver	Mitchel van den Brink	Gert Huzink	Kay Huzink
Stage 6	Julien Dalbec	Mitchel van den Brink	Janus van Kasteren	Kay Huzink
Stage 7	Joris Van Dyck	Mitchel van den Brink	Janus van Kasteren	Kay Huzink
Stage 8	Dennis Verswijver	Mitchel van den Brink	Geoff Minnitt	Kay Huzink

Results

Bikes

Finish	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	105	Julien Dalbec	Rallye 583	24:24:22	Leader
2	104	David McBride	Vendetta Racing	24:49:05	+ 24:43
3	124	Dennis Verswijver	Desert Vikings	25:08:07	+ 43:45
4	101	Joris Van Dyck	ASAP Rally Racing	25:09:50	+ 45:28
5	121	Wouter de Graaff	Desert Vikings	25:32:29	+ 1:08:07
6	122	Bart van Olst	Desert Vikings	26:42:06	+ 2:17:44
7	102	Richard Dors	Vendetta Racing	26:52:34	+ 2:28:12
8	112	David Mabbs	Vendetta Racing	27:24:59	+ 3:00:37
9	116	Loïc Bonicel	Rallye 583	28:06:07	+ 3:41:45
10	109	Ginés Belzunces	Club Aventura Touareg	28:18:49	+ 3:54:27
11	120	Thijs Cools	ASAP Rally Racing	28:23:03	+ 3:58:41
12	132	Henri Govaere	GOVAERE – VDM	29:30:07	+ 5:05:45
13	128	Thomas Eder	Wilde Kerle Racing	29:59:43	+ 5:35:21
14	131	Ilyasse Achaoui	Wilderness Wheels	30:12:43	+ 5:48:21
15	107	Sławomir Sypień	DUUST Rally Team	31:04:17	+ 6:39:55
16	115	Jurgen Van Rompaey	Soul & Nature	31:20:15	+ 6:55:53
17	134	Emile Vandermarliere	GOVAERE – VDM	31:31:11	+ 7:06:49
18	126	Sam Handley	Wilderness Wheels	32:36:07	+ 8:11:45
19	123	Robert van Olst	Desert Vikings	33:08:33	+ 8:44:11
20	119	Beatriz Diez	Club Aventura Touareg	36:56:31	+ 12:32:09
21	127	Lee Szabo	MOTE RallySport	37:44:06	+ 13:19:44
22	106	Stéphane Poulet	Chicken Racing Team	55:58:00	+ 31:33:38
23	130	Michael Fowler	Mick Extance Rally Academy	59:48:40	+ 35:24:18
24	111	Maxence Costard	LDZ56	70:48:50	+ 46:24:28
25	118	Georges Mazier	Rallye 583	111:44:44	+ 87:20:22
26	129	Christoph Martin Köhlmeier	Wilde Kerle Racing	116:26:41	+ 92:02:19
27	136	Fred Mastop	MTInfra	306:37:00	+ 282:12:38
DNF	110	Thierry Costard	LDZ56	DNF	N/A
DNF	117	Rich Turner	DRR	DNF	N/A
DNF	125	Alona Ben Natan	Alona Ben Natan	DNF	N/A

Cars

T1+

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	306	Ronald van Loon	Erik Lemmen	Oase Motorsport	23:11:16	Leader
2	3	304	Vincent Thijs	Tom de Leeuw	RT Offroad	23:40:07	+ 28:51
3	6	317	Dan Beecroft	Phillip Gillespie	Red-Lined Europe	27:34:36	+ 4:23:20
4	7	301	Mitchel van den Brink	Bart van Heun	Eurol Rally Sport MP Rallysport	27:43:00	+ 4:31:44
5	8	319	Dave Beecroft	Fraser Parish	Red-Lined Europe	28:09:10	+ 4:57:54
6	11	307	Gert-Jan van der Valk	Branco de Lange	MP Rallysport	31:41:02	+ 8:29:46
7	16	316	Włodzimierz Grajek	Michał Goleniewski	Grajek Rally Team	68:00:05	+ 44:48:49
8	18	312	Rients Hofstra	Evert Boersma	Red-Lined Europe	85:30:38	+ 62:19:22

T1 4×4

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Group	Total Time	Margin
1	4	309	Magdalena Zając	Adam Szelerski	Proxcars TME Rally Team	Petrol	26:38:03	Leader
2	9	315	Raf van der Steen	Kris Van der Steen	Off-Road Racing Team Robert Ranst	Petrol	29:10:41	+ 2:32:38
3	10	310	Vincent Vroninks	Dave Berghmans	Desert Lions Rally Team	Petrol	29:36:34	+ 2:58:31
4	12	323	Ernst Amort #	Anja Schweyer	RZR Racing	Petrol 2-Rigid Axles	32:53:23	+ 6:15:20
5	15	322	Arjen van Asselt #	Jari Hendriks	Hamer Rally Team	Diesel	64:03:06	+ 37:25:03
6	21	324	John Groen	Arjan Arendse	Desert Daltons	Petrol 2-Rigid Axles	148:35:34	+ 121:57:31
7	22	318	Andrew Wicklow	Kirsty Wicklow	PEAKE Motorsport	Petrol	157:00:47	+ 130:22:44
8	23	327	Frank Elsermans #	Arnaud Coppieters	Unbeatable		295:11:00	+ 268:32:57
DNF	DNF	314	Jos Bijnens	Johny Vekemans	MSE	Petrol	DNF	N/A

T1 4×2

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	2	303	Agostino Rizzardi	Claudio Fenati	Countrysideways	23:23:41	Leader
2	5	308	Frédéric Chesneau	Stéphane Chesneau	Skybox	26:41:50	+ 3:18:09
3	14	305	Jean Pascal Besson	Vincent Ferri	Rallye Raid Concept	52:58:57	+ 29:35:16
4	17	302	Mike van Eikeren	Jasper Riezebos	MP Rallysport	85:03:27	+ 61:39:45
DNF	DNF	311	Hugues Moilet	Mayeul Barbet	Off Road Concept	DNF	N/A

T2

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	13	320	Patrice Benoit #	Herve Demaison	Mautret Racing	36:09:52	Leader
2	19	326	Kris Claeys	Steve Vandenberghe	Claeys 4×4	88:30:36	+ 52:20:44
3	20	325	Baptiste Poilvé #	Émilie Trompat	Battements de Cils	96:57:45	+ 60:47:53

SSVs

T3

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	4	208	Michiel Becx	Sander Van Barschot	Shiver Offroad	25:57:15	Leader
2	10	226	Victor Grasa Royo	Ruben Mañas Pardos	Coviar Rally Raid	27:56:51	+ 1:59:36
3	20	216	Laurens Meijer	Gerrit Meijer	QFF Racing	34:19:54	+ 8:22:39
4	22	203	Gert Huzink	Hugo Kupper	QFF Racing	42:26:48	+ 16:29:33
5	23	209	Bert Van Druten	Patric Brinkman	QFF Racing	48:07:50	+ 22:10:35
6	25	206	Willem Meijer	Rudolf Meijer	QFF Racing	66:46:37	+ 40:49:22
7	32	202	Erik Wevers ^	Floor Maten	Taurus	86:29:01	+ 60:31:46
8	34	220	Edward Ruszczyc	Krzysztof Kubiś	RedFox	87:58:54	+ 62:01:39
9	35	211	Ruud Vollebregt	Patricia Vollebregt	QFF Racing	92:56:44	+ 66:59:29
10	37	237	Mikko Ikonen	Joni Lassila	SRT	122:26:12	+ 96:28:57
11	40	244	André van Gerven	Ted Peters	QFF Racing	217:54:25	+ 191:57:10

T4

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Can-Am Cup	Total Time	Margin
1	1	205	Janus van Kasteren	Marcel Snijders	Renders Racing	R	24:14:13	Leader
2	2	204	Paulo Rodrigues	Fausto Mota	Rio Seco Racing	R	24:59:27	+ 45:14
3	3	230	Filipe Lopes	Gonçalo Reis	Rio Seco Racing	R	25:41:54	+ 1:27:41
4	5	214	Gwen Backx	Nick Weyens	QFF Racing	R	26:15:05	+ 2:00:52
5	6	221	Jeroen van Kasteren	Rik Vaessen	Shiver Offroad	R	26:40:59	+ 2:26:46
6	7	212	Thijs Heezen Jr.	Sam Van Kemenade	Van Eerd Racing	R	26:59:06	+ 2:44:53
7	8	225	José María Camí	Cristian Camí Matesanz	Buggy Masters Team	R	27:28:55	+ 3:14:42
8	11	243	Bas Buijnsters	Pieter Herijgens	QFF Racing	X3	28:04:55	+ 3:50:42
9	12	215	Rene Van Eerd	Jan Van der Vaet	Van Eerd Racing	X3	28:12:40	+ 3:58:27
10	13	235	Marcel van Berlo	Olaf Harmsen	QFF Racing	R	28:16:43	+ 4:02:30
11	14	239	Frederik Meijer	Floor Meijer	QFF Racing	X3	28:55:25	+ 4:41:12
12	15	217	Axel Geyskens	Mike Daas	QFF Racing	R	29:10:36	+ 4:56:23
13	16	228	Carlo Heezen	Roy van der Zanden	Van Eerd Racing	X3	30:14:55	+ 6:00:42
14	18	236	Peter Erren	Edwin van der Vegt	Van Eerd Racing	X3	31:15:49	+ 7:01:36
15	26	201	Geoff Minnitt	Henry Köhne	Dirt & Dust Adventures South Racing	R	69:23:41	+ 45:09:28
16	27	240	Nicușor Duica	Nicoleta Duica	Dumobat	X3	71:10:03	+ 46:55:50
17	28	234	Nico Gründmann	Johan Pouw	QFF Racing	R	72:40:36	+ 48:26:23
18	38	219	André Thewessen	Arjan Van Tiel	ATS Rally	R	124:24:40	+ 100:10:27
DNF	DNF	245	Jack Wicklow	Nicholas Findlay	PEAKE Motorsport	R	DNF	N/A

Open

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	9	232	Josep Rojas	Joan Rubi	Procurve	27:50:59	Leader
2	17	224	Franck Boulay	Patrick Debaussage	Fesh Fesh	30:42:18	+ 2:51:19
3	19	241	Paolo Scalzotto	Umberto Fiori	RZR Racing	31:45:10	+ 3:54:11
4	21	227	Stefano Bosio	Federica Bosio	RZR Racing	34:19:58	+ 6:28:59
5	24	207	Ricardo Vela Ibáñez	Sergio Molins Rosalen	RV Racing Team	54:32:15	+ 26:41:16
6	29	223	Gerard Spelt	Sebastiaan Spekman	Meer Holding Rally	72:41:01	+ 44:50:02
7	30	231	Loïc Frébourg	Fabrice Molitor	Fesh Fesh	72:43:20	+ 44:52:21
8	33	238	Nikola Hristov	Nedko Hristov	Synthesia Racing	86:40:20	+ 58:49:21
9	36	218	Janus van Kasteren Sr.	Martijn van der Burgt	Shiver Offroad	122:25:48	+ 94:34:49
10	39	245	Jack Wicklow	Nicholas Findlay	PEAKE Motorsport	152:08:19	+ 124:17:20
DNF	DNF	229	Holly Wicklow	Dannielle Scarr	PEAKE Motorsport	DNF	N/A

Open Light

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	31	246	Roland Perret	Perret Family	85:40:09	Leader

Trucks

T5

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	1	501	Kay Huzink	Mark Salomons	Corné Blok	Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Team de Rooy	24:07:56	Leader
2	2	505	Pedro de Uriarte	Eduardo Vanzzini	Max van Grol	Team de Rooy	25:47:59	+ 1:40:03
3	3	502	Martin van den Brink	Sienna van den Brink	Hans van den Brink	Eurol Rally Sport	26:02:53	+ 1:54:57
4	4	506	Marnix Leeuw	Marije van Ettekoven	Bart Gloudemans	Rijschool Fury Team de Rooy	26:34:49	+ 2:26:53
5	5	503	Darek Łysek	Łukasz Łaskawiec	Darek Rodewald	Hurtimo Rally Team Team de Rooy	28:32:34	+ 4:24:38
6	7	504	William van Groningen	Wesley van Groningen	Jessie van Groningen	Dust Warriors	45:51:42	+ 21:43:46

T5 Over 15

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	8	508	Steve Ingels	Victor Ingels	Arthur Ingels	RR Belgica	46:28:38	Leader

T5 Over 20

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver	Navigator	Mechanic	Team	Total Time	Margin
1	6	507	Fons Jans	Hans Heerema	Renaldo Schrave	Hamer Rally Team	32:40:39	Leader

Featured image credit: Rallymaniacs