Martin Macik, Sr., head of the Big Shock! Racing team, developed, with his MM Technology crew, five race trucks for the 2022 Dakar Rally. Three of them are brand new and were built within the past 12 months. Two trucks will represent the Big Shock! Racing team: Charles, an Iveco Powerstar driven by Martin Macik, Jr., and a brand new model, Arnold, driven by Martin Soltys. Other teams will, however, also race in vehicles with parts made by the Macik family. Maurik van den Heuvel will drive a truck built on a chassis from Sedlcany. The Italian crew of the Italtrans Racing Team is going to Dakar with the new blue special built in the Sedlcany facilities. The latest surprise is the just-completed white truck for the Dutch Project2030. Their driver, Kees Koolen, will soon present his plans for the legendary race in the upcoming years.
We will be carrying 110 tyres
Martin Macik, Sr. and his team of mechanics will also provide technical service for all five race trucks during the 2022 Dakar. The skill, ingenuity, diligence and improvisational abilities of the Czech mechanics are already becoming legendary at the Dakar. An added bonus is their constant good mood, humour, and calmness, which they can maintain even in the most dramatic situations, of which there is no shortage at the Dakar. Interest in their work is therefore steadily increasing. “All the new cars are based on the same development, built based on the successful Charles. But at the same time, each of the partners has specified certain preferences, which we have fulfilled during the construction. The latest white truck for the Dutch team, for example, is thirty centimetre-longer than all the others. I can’t reveal the reason for this yet, but we enjoy challenges like this,” Martin Macik, Sr. said. At the same time, however, the trucks have identical basic parts, so it will be easy to work together in the service. The Big Shock! Racing is therefore strengthening its team for the next Dakar. “We will be adding three new Iveco support vehicles in which we will carry plenty of spare parts including an incredible amount of tyres, about hundred and ten pieces. We are even converting one of the assists into a legendary sleeping car. And we’ve also strengthened the team of mechanics, we’ll have thirty-six mechanics in total,” the on-board mechanic David Svanda described. Martin Macik, Jr. added: “Each team goes to Dakar with their own goal, of course. But during the year, we have been in contact with each other, we got to know each other, and even became friends with some. I believe it will show on the track in Saudi Arabia if anyone needs any help.”
We’ve seen a lot at the Dakar in 20 years – we project that experience into our trucks
For Martin Macik, Sr. the next Dakar will be his twentieth in a row. It all started when Martin, together with Lada Fajtl, who is still big support for the team, repaired a legendary Liaz pulled out of the nettles in 2002 and set off with it to race at the 2003 Dakar for the first time. “The introductory prologue lead us on a beach in Valencia, where we managed to destroy the propeller blades for cooling. We didn’t have any spare parts, of course, so we had to get some aluminium shovels. We cut out the blades and screwed them on the centre of the propeller,” Lada Fajtl recalled the very beginnings. Today, everything is different. During the twenty years of Dakar races, Martin Macik, Sr. has built dozens of race trucks. His development has moved on with each successive generation and new experience. The team has gradually expanded, adding mechanics, engineers, designers, and engine developers. Today, the Sedlcany facility is the place where the most successful non-factory Dakar team develops unbreakable race trucks that score points in the most extreme race in the world. They have already won stages of the Dakar, won the Baja Aragon, Baja Poland, the Rallye du Maroc and finished twice in fourth place in the overall Dakar rankings. It seems that during the 44th year of the famous race, Martin Macik, Sr. and his design and development workshop MM Technology will become one of the main suppliers of racing trucks.
Come and see the Czech racing trucks yourself
Fans who would like to see both the racing and the accompanying vehicles of the Big Shock! Racing team from up close will get a chance on Sunday, November 28. The entire fleet will be on display at the T. G. Masaryk square in the town of Sedlcany, right before its departure for the Marseille port, whence it will continue to Saudi Arabia. As always, the complete Big Shock! Racing team will be there as well on November 28, happy to talk to fans about anything that interests them about the legendary Dakar Rally.
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