"Of course, you want to be the best."

The Czech Republic has been waiting for a winner in the trucks since the legendary Karel Loprais won the last of his six titles in 2001 -and in Martin Macik, they may just have found their man. The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the most talented drivers in the category in recent years, and has already participated in seven Dakars since his debut as a navigator for Vlastimil Vildman in 2013. After getting behind the wheel himself in 2015, he improved from 19th to 10th to 5th place overall, although his 2019 rally was curtailed after a crash on stage five, which led to the team's exclusion. Undeterred, they continued in the newly created half-marathon class, where they eventually finished second. Martin's father, Martin Macik Senior, began participating in the Dakar in 2003, and gave his son the bug by taking him to watch the end of the rally in Senegal. In 2016, the father-and-son duo created the Big Shock Racing team, which encourages professional racers and amateur enthusiasts to take part in the world's biggest rally. For this 2020 edition in Saudi Arabia, Martin is coming with a new Iveco truck which he hopes will allow him to go toe-to-toe with the big guns, especially three-time reigning champions Kamaz. He is joined by his usual navigator Frantisek Tomasek and new mechanic David Svanda, who has over a decade of experience servicing trucks. After a mixed 2019 - which nevertheless included victories at Baja Poland and Baja Aragon - Martin and his crew will once again be targeting a place in the top five, although they wouldn't say no to following in Loprais' footsteps!

"Last year, we were leading stage five with Andrey Karginov, in the middle of nowhere, kilometre 200-something. There was a huge field of fesh-fesh, lots of dust everywhere. We were going 140 km/h, and then suddenly 50 metres in front of me there was a big pocket, over four metres deep. You can't stop a 10-tonne truck in 50 metres! So we had a big jump and crashed on the front right wheel, which broke, and we had to stop and repair it. We did manage to get to the finish line, but very late and after missing six or seven waypoints, so we were excluded. Still, we continued in the half-marathon class and came second. My fans and my family said, 'you have to continue', so we tried our best. If you look at the times we actually did really well, even when we started behind the first 25 vehicles. I wouldn’t say the 2019 season was hugely successful, but in terms of experience and how everything went, I'm really satisfied. We won Baja Aragon and came second at the Rallye du Maroc after some problems with the gearbox. Morocco was really tough. But there was an updated navigation system which will also be used on the Dakar, so it was really good preparation. I destroyed the truck quite a lot this year, but that's how you figure out what you need to develop! It was all good. We'll have a completely new truck for Dakar 2020. We've gone global with Iveco! Most of the truck is still the same, but the cab is new, and we've moved it further forward. So we are ready to compete with the top guys. It's not really my style to say, 'we're going to win!', but if you are racing then you are competing. And of course, you want to be the best. Our ambition is to be in the top five. We have a pretty young crew but with lots of experience. I don't know Saudi Arabia but I'm looking forward to it. I love changes in my life. In the eight years I've been doing the Dakar it's been in South America, so for me it's a really good change. For racing it will be one of the best editions."