Crew facts

• From an early age, Eryk’s life has turned around motorsport and cars. As soon as he could walk, he was already riding his first, small electric quad. His passion for speed and competition quickly grew and increased with quads, gokarts, SSV adventures and family off-road trips.
• Coming from a motorsport family, with his father Marek also being a rally driver, Eryk was introduced to the world of racing since he was born. He has always dreamed of competing in the Dakar Rally as for him it's the toughest in the world and the ultimate challenge he always wanted to achieve. His childhood hero and inspiration was Stéphane Peterhansel.
• He gained his first experience in cross-country rallies and also became the Polish Drift Champion in 2022. Shortly after obtaining his driver’s license, he took part in the 2023 Dakar Rally as the youngest driver in history. Later, he became the youngest driver to ever win a stage and then the entire rally in the T4 category, on his debut! He finished the 2023 season as the Vice World Champion in T4 class of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship.
• The 2024 season was a brief stop in the T3 class. Eryk drove the Taurus T3 Max, however, his progress in the Dakar Rally came to a halt when he was disqualified from the race on the rest day for breaching FIA technical regulations. He then went on to win his category in the Baja Espana and the Rallye du Maroc.
• In 2025, he made his debut in the premier Ultimate category, a debut that turned out to be a real sensation, as Eryk and Oriol won Stage 4. Last may, Eryk teamed up with a new, experienced co-driver, Szymon Gospodarczyk. As part of their preparations for the 2026 Dakar Rally, they competed together in Baja España Aragón (stage winners), the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal and Rallye du Maroc.

• This will be his 9th appearance for Szymon on the Dakar but his second in the Ultimate class. The 40-year-old polish copilot first got interested in rally at the age of 15 when his brother Kuba took him to a local event. Five years later he reached his first rally as a licensed co-driver. He was so stressed that he got into the wrong car ! "I put on the helmet and fastened my seatbelt, and only when I opened the notes I realised I had mixed up the cars!"
• Szymon is a twice Polish Rally Champion (2019 and 2021) alongside Miko Marczyk, with whom he competes in the WRC/ERC. He was 2nd in the ERC co-drivers' standings in the 2021 season, and just helped Miko reach third place in the drivers' standings in 2024. In 2025 they won the ERC season.
• It was in 2018 that Szymon made his Dakar debut alongside Claude Fournier. They did a superb job to finish 3rd in the SSV class. After a brief stint as a truck navigator with Patrice Garrouste (9th in 2020), he embarked on a successful partnership with Michal Goczal in the SSVs. The Polish duo - national cross-country champions in 2019 - came as high as 4th in the Dakar 2021 though they were disqualified from Dakar 2024 (along with Michal's nephew Eryk Goczal) for the use of a non-compliant clutch disc.
• His idols are Cyril Despres, Nani Roma, Alfie Cox, Fabrizio Meoni, Stephane Peterhansel and Hiroshi Masuoka.
• Szymon's motto is "dream responsibly because dreams come true"