The previous two victories of the Macík – Tomášek – Švanda crew looked quite easy from the warmth and comfort of the living room, after all, they always reached the finish line with more than an hour’s lead. But make no mistake, nothing is easy about the Dakar. In fact, it was hard fought, won not only thanks to the speed of Martin Macík, but also thanks to the enormous experience of the entire crew and, last but not least, thanks to the durable technique.
After all, they have been developing and polishing this to perfection at Macík for almost a quarter of a century, and it was only because of this that Martin was able to win the recent Rallye du Maroc with a car that was put together for him just “a few days” before the start. And although it is physically a completely new car with a new name Pepa, technically it is practically identical to last year’s winning Bohouš (except for a few small things, such as digital rear-view mirrors), i.e. for connoisseurs of the Evo4 generation.
Foto: MM Production
In Sedlčany, they build such great trucks that you can race them immediately after leaving the factory. But behind this is almost a quarter of a century of intensive technical development.
Another four such trucks were created this year in the workshops of MM Technology in Sedlčany – Czeslaw for the Polish racer Darko Łysk, two almost identical ones for the Dutch De Groot brothers and the last one, completed only a few days ago, for another Dutchman Mitchel van den Brink, a young and talented predator who is one of Macík’s biggest rivals in the fight for gold.
Foto: MM Production
The MM Technology team was in charge of nine trucks at the Dakar last time, and thus they belong to the largest and most important participants in the competition.
It may seem strange to you that the winner of the Dakar is arming his strongest competitors with the best technology, but this is how it goes in this class – the private team of the Macík family has become a large factory that produces the fastest trucks for a good quarter of the racing field. At the Dakar 2026 (just like this year), they will be in charge of nine of them, six of them in the fastest Evo4 specification (which will be supplemented by two Evo3s and one Evo1, ridden by Michal Valtr). It’s no wonder that their team in the Dakar bivouac takes up a space the size of a football field, that they carry ninety tons of spare parts and hundreds of Prometeon tires with them.
We’re proud that so many of our trucks are heading to the Dakar – that’s exactly what we’re developing them for. But more importantly, such a wide representation across many teams shows that our approach to developing rally specials works not just for our factory team, but equally well for customer crews.
Foto: MM Production
The traditional farewell to the fans took place last Sunday, now all the equipment is on its way to Barcelona and then to Saudi Arabia.
The tire company Prometeon is one of the largest technological and marketing partners of MM Technology. Together with Martin Macík, they develop new durable and fast compounds, which are then used by other racing teams. In addition, this successful partnership will continue for another three years, as both parties have now solemnly announced.
What started as a bold technology move has turned into one of our most valuable partnerships. We are happy that we can continue this journey until 2028 and push the boundaries further together.
Foto: MM Production
Is Martin Macík going for his third victory? He is certainly going to fight for it, but he himself knows well how difficult Dakar racing is and approaches it with humility, so he prefers to refrain from making any bold statements.
All the equipment is now packed and set off on its way to the port of Barcelona, from where it will go by ship to Saudi Arabia. There, the MM Technology team will pick it up and check it right away on New Year’s Day, shakedown and private tests will follow, and Dakar 2026 will officially start with the prologue on Saturday, January 3. It will be followed by 13 stages (two of them will be marathon) and on Saturday, January 17, we will know the winner. Will it be Martin Macík in the trucks again? Will you be rooting for him? Write to us in the discussion who is your favorite in the fight for Dakar gold!
In any case, we will be following him very closely, so stay tuned to Garáž.cz.
