Martin Macik Jr. christens EVO 4 truck “Benny the Big Guy”

Martin Macík Jr. will hope Benny can bring him a second Dakar Rally title in a row. On Friday, he announced he has given his new IVECO EVO 4 truck from MM Technology the name “Bohouš” along with an alternative English moniker “Benny the Big Guy”.

Bohouš, derived from Bohumil, is a Czech male name meaning “blessed by God”. Similarly, Benny is shorthand for Benjamin or Benedict, both with religious connotations as “son of the right hand” and “blessed”, respectively.

“We wanted a purely Czech name for it, so it’s Bohouš in Czech which we translate to English as Benny,” Macík explained. “I believe I speak for everyone in the team when I say that we are looking forward to seeing it and its new design in action.”

Macík has a tendency to give nicknames to his trucks, feeling it helps give the team a personal connection to each vehicle. He won the 2024 Dakar Rally in the Truck category with an IVECO that he christened “Cenda”, which has since been sold to Firemen Dakarteam, while he has another in reserve dubbed “Frank”. Their predecessors, when Macík’s team was known as Big Shock! Racing, were called “Arnold” and “Charles”. Even trucks built for customers had names such as Vincenzo and Nicias, respectively driven by Claudio Bellina and Kees Koolen at the 2022 Dakar.

The EVO 4 was unveiled on Tuesday. Besides Macík, Eurol Rally Sport will also race trucks from the series with Martin and Mitchel van den Brink.

Prometeon Tyre Group will sponsor Benny and provide tyres. Owned by Pirelli, Prometeon specialises in making tyres for heavy-duty vehicles like semi-trailer trucks. The company made its Dakar début in 2024 with the S02 Pista tyre, which was used by Bellina (finished seventh in the Truck category) and Gianandrea Pellegrini (sixteenth) along with Tibau Team’s assistance trucks.

“We perceive Prometeon as a strong technological partner with whose support we can successfully develop better and better rally machines,” offered Macík’s father and MM head of development Martin Macík Sr. “I believe that together we will achieve significant success.

“In rough terrain and at our race pace, you can’t do without proper tyres. They connect the truck to the ground and can often decide the outcome of not only a stage, but the whole race. We’ve had years of hard work and success with the whole team, but we still want to push on. That’s why I’m delighted that we have partnered with Prometeon, a tyre supplier that aligns perfectly with what we need.”

The S02, or Serie 02, will be used for Benny as well.

“We are excited to become the partner of choice of MM Technology and provide our Serie 02 tyres for Benny the Big Guy,” added Peometeon CEO Roberto Righi. “Our solutions are engineered for top-tier performance, especially in the most challenging rally conditions. We look forward to supporting MM Technology in their pursuit of victory on the toughest terrains.”

Ahead of the 2025 Dakar Rally on 3–17 January, Benny will run the Rallye du Maroc on 6–11 October. Macík’s mechanic David Švanda described the race as “like a small Dakar for us. We want to bring home the best possible result, of course, but we are mainly approaching this as the first real opportunity to test the new EVO 4 trucks in rally conditions. We will focus mainly on the technical development and see how high we can go in the final standings.”