IVECO wins 2023 Dakar Rally

Following a superb effort to be the first non-Kamaz truck in the Dakar last year, Janus van Kasteren was always going to a favourite to be on the podium in this year’s event.

Van Kasteren’s co-driver Marcel Snijders has the most Dakar experience in the truck, making his debut in the bike class back in 2005 – since then he has added entries in buggies, cars and trucks.

Meanwhile, mechanic Darek Rodewald has tasted the greatest success, being part of the winning De Rooy team in 2012 and 2016, plus four further podiums.

Before the event, van Kasteren said: “This will be my third year with De Rooy and I have a good feeling about it. Everyone thinks without Kamaz it should be easy to be on the podium, but there are other strong competitors – including my own team-mates of course.

“If you want to fight for a Dakar podium you need to take some risks. Every day you think about ‘that hole’ or ‘that jump’. It’s a crazy sport, but I love the adventure – and the speed. My father also drives in the Dakar, in a classic truck for De Rooy, so the rest of our family just accepts we are never going to be home in January!”

Without the mighty Russian Kamaz trucks which have dominated the Trucks classification in recent years, this year’s Dakar was guaranteed to be a more open event.

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Certainly, the de Rooy trucks, based on the IVECO Powerstar, would be among the favourites, but up there as well would be the charismatic Czech Martin Macik in the MM Technology IVECO-based prototype.

In his 11th Dakar, the 33-year-old had a great opportunity to become the first Czech winner since the late, great Karel Loprais in 2001, but he would still face stiff competition from the likes of van Kasteren, Martin van den Brink and Karel's nephew Ales Loprais.

Loprais took an early lead and was looking good until a tragic accident led to his retirement, leaving the door open for the #502 truck of van Kasteren.

Following Loprais’ retirement after stage 9, van Kasteren inherited the lead and was constantly pressured by van den Brink and Macik.

Macik leapfrogged van den Brink after Stage 13 but it was too late. Janus van Kasteren had piled on a lead of over an hour and had just to finish the final stage to take out the 2023 Dakar.

Congratulation to Janus van Kasteren (NLD), Darek Rodewald (POL) and Marcel Snijders (NLD) on winning the Truck Classification of the 2023 Dakar Rally.