TAURUS

Nineteen-year-old Eryk Goczal is already a Dakar sensation. Inspired by his father Marek and uncle Michal, who battled for the SSV podium in 2021 and 2022, the Pole made his Dakar debut in 2023. He couldn't have dreamt of a better start as he won the rally in T4, becoming the youngest victor in history at 18 years and 70 days old! It was the first major title of his rallying career, which began in the 2019 Baja Europe with an organisation zero car. He continued in this role in the 2020 Polish Cross-Country Championship before debuting in the Polish Drift Championship in 2021, where he was the youngest driver in history. Third in the Pro2 category, he moved up to the premier class in 2022 and won the Polish Drift Championship, demonstrating the extent of his talent. His rally-raid debut was the Dubai International Baja, which he won in T4 ahead of his uncle and father. He made Dakar history when he teamed up with veteran Oriol Mena. Seventh in motorbikes in 2018, the Spaniard has been co-driver to several rally-raid champions, such as Chaleco Lopez and Rokas Baciuska. He helped the Lithuanian climb onto the podium in 2022 before guiding the sensational Eryk to victory. Since then, the Polish driver and business management student has competed in the Drift Masters European Championship, with his best result being fourth place. Oriol, meanwhile, continued his W2RC season with Guoyu Zhang. The pair met again at the Morocco Rally, where Eryk was racing in his first T3 race. The duo once again showed just what they were capable of, winning the prologue and then stage 1. Although mechanical problems put the brakes on their ambitions in the general classification, they will surely be at the sharp end of the order this year.