It’s been a long time since the Dakar rally between France and Senegal took place (the Africa Race has taken over), but the concept of the rally raid continues to make truck madmen dream. There will even be some Belgian participants at the start.
The 2026 Dakar will take place from January 3 to 17 in Saudi Arabia. The ‘trucks’ category attracted 43 vehicles, some of which compete alone for victory in this category and others serve as fast support vehicles for other car or motorcycle competitors. To this number must be added 24 vehicles in the ‘historic’ category and one truck in the Dakar Future Mission 1000 category.
As for the match itself, it comes down to one question: who can beat Iveco? There are 20 trucks with an Iveco engine at the start, including the Powerstar and the MM Technology-designed derivatives of favorites Aleš Loprais, Martin and Mitch van den Brink, Martin Macik (who is aiming for a hat trick) and Vaidotas Zala. The competition comes from some individual participants, such as the Japanese Teruhito Sugawara in his Hino 600, some good teams in Renault Trucks (Ray and Gert Huzink) and the Czech Martin Soltys in a Tatra-Buggyra.
As for the drivers, the Dutch will take the lion’s share, but some Belgians will also appear at the start: Limburg’s Peter Willemsen will act as Martin van den Brink’s navigator, Dave Ingels will drive the MAN TGA #626, Dave Berghmans will do the same with the Iveco #631, which will serve as a fast assistance for the Belgian team Overdrive, and Didier Monseu will drive the MAN TGA #636 control.
A hybrid truck will participate in the Dakar Future Mission 1000: a MAN that has been adapted to run on both HVO and hydrogen. Finally, there is the ‘Classic’ category.
