“We will need to be strong”
Crew facts
B.d.G.
- Ben is the CEO of the family-owned de Groot Fresh Group, a leading international business in fruit and vegetables. His professional responsibilities demand a great deal of time and investment. Participating in the Dakar Rally is his way to take a breath, the moment in the year when he escapes the office and lives another kind of adventure before returning to work harder than ever. And he does it in family with his brother William, driver too.
- After mixing media car duties with rally raids for several years, Ben completed his first Dakar in 18th place in 2022. Preparations for the 2023 event were disrupted by a health scare affecting his brother William. Ben stepped into William’s seat in their new De Rooy-built Iveco truck. Technical problems, combined with physical challenges, made this participation particularly difficult, and Ben endured a tough year marked by hand problems.
- Driving his own truck in 2024, the Dutch businessman led it to 8th place, an exceptional result despite the usual Dakar’s highs and lows. In 2025, an accident involving a local vehicle stuck in the sand ended his race after three stages, breaking his thumb. Ben is back in 2026 with a brand-new toy built by MM Technology, the trucks winner’s company.
- The happiness of being present and living this experience with his family and the people he loves: that’s what Dakar is all about for Ben. He will once again be accompanied by his regular mechanic Govert Boogaard and his son-in-law Ad Hofmans.
A.H.
- There is a legendary Dutch passion for Dakar trucks, but Ad Hofmans first fell in love with motorsport on two wheels. He comes from a family of motocross enthusiasts and started watching races when he was only six years old.
- Ad is Ben de Groot’s stepson, and their connection helped him enter the world of rally‑raid. He admits without hesitation that he probably would not have had this opportunity otherwise. A family united by love and passion for motorsport, what else? Ad will navigate for his father-in-law for the fourth time in 2026.
- A former competitor in the Morocco Desert Challenge on bikes, Ad remains passionate about bikes and has restored his own, now ready to race again. Yet Dakar remains a truck adventure for him, and his skills as a bike rider are useful for navigation. He also competed once as a truck driver in 2023, achieving an interesting 11th place.
G.B.
- Govert Boogaard, owner of the G&B Autoservice garage in Hedel, is an expert in mechanic. That’s his role in the Dakar Rally: working on Ben de Groot’s truck, as he did in each of his four Dakar participations. Like the Dutch driver, Govert has experienced both the joy of crossing the finish line -including a respectable 8th place in 2024- and the heartbreak of having to retire. He returns with the goal of helping secure another finisher’s medal.
- This year, the Dutch mechanic will work on a brand-new toy: the truck #611 is an IVECO Powerstar Evo 4 built by MM Technology. For sure one of the best packages of the bivouac! The de Groot family purchased two models from Martin Macik, one for each brother.
A.H.
- There is a legendary Dutch passion for Dakar trucks, but Ad Hofmans first fell in love with motorsport on two wheels. He comes from a family of motocross enthusiasts and started watching races when he was only six years old.
- Ad is Ben de Groot’s stepson, and their connection helped him enter the world of rally‑raid. He admits without hesitation that he probably would not have had this opportunity otherwise. A family united by love and passion for motorsport, what else? Ad will navigate for his father-in-law for the fourth time in 2026.
- A former competitor in the Morocco Desert Challenge on bikes, Ad remains passionate about bikes and has restored his own, now ready to race again. Yet Dakar remains a truck adventure for him, and his skills as a bike rider are useful for navigation. He also competed once as a truck driver in 2023, achieving an interesting 11th place.
Ambition
B.d.G.: “I’ve always loved anything with an engine and was just happy to follow from the sidelines, with the media or doing some small rallies by myself in Morocco, etc. But I finally did my first truck Dakar in 2022. Three weeks a year, I do it to completely empty my mind and then start again in my business. It will be my fifth Dakar, and we’re expecting quite a long race, the stages are really long this year. We don’t know if it will be dunes, gravel… or even worse! It will be heavy, so we need to be strong. There are a lot of fast people out there, and everybody is driving fast trucks, so the competition will be tough. We’re starting with two brand-new trucks built by Macik. We only drove from Holland to Barcelona, so we’ll see how it goes at the shakedown! Finishing is the most important goal. Since the trucks are new, we don’t know exactly how they’ll behave, but we need to learn quickly. After a day or two, I expect we’ll be somewhere in the top 10. We won’t be at the front, that’s for the younger drivers and I’m nearly 60! We just want to enjoy it and hope to finish with both new trucks. My son-in-law is a very good navigator, and Govert is a great mechanic, so it’s perfect to have them with me.”
A.D.: “The 2025 edition was very short because of the accident we had during the third day. The only nice thing was that I was at home for my daughters’ birthday, but that was not the plan! This Dakar is going to be a tough one and I hope that we will finish. That’s the only goal. I will try to do a good navigation. It’s not a very hard task but you need a bit of feeling for it. I think I have it, and I trained it with my son on the Dakar videogame!”
A.D.: “The 2025 edition was very short because of the accident we had during the third day. The only nice thing was that I was at home for my daughters’ birthday, but that was not the plan! This Dakar is going to be a tough one and I hope that we will finish. That’s the only goal. I will try to do a good navigation. It’s not a very hard task but you need a bit of feeling for it. I think I have it, and I trained it with my son on the Dakar videogame!”
A.D.: “The 2025 edition was very short because of the accident we had during the third day. The only nice thing was that I was at home for my daughters’ birthday, but that was not the plan! This Dakar is going to be a tough one and I hope that we will finish. That’s the only goal. I will try to do a good navigation. It’s not a very hard task but you need a bit of feeling for it. I think I have it, and I trained it with my son on the Dakar videogame!”
