The Dutch father/son duo of Martin and Mitchel van den Brink will contest the 2023 Dakar Rally together in the Truck category, an effort that was virtually assured on Friday when their Mammoet Rallysport team acquired title sponsorship from Eurol Lubricants, rebranding them to Eurol Rally Sport. Both will race at Dakar for Team de Rooy in Iveco PowerStars with liveries from the new backer.
“Eurol’s support as new main sponsor means that I will also be on the start line in the Dakar Rally of 2023 in a Team de Rooy truck,” said the older van den Brink. “We are now working hard to achieve that, but this is a good start. Through the role of Eurol, van den Brink Jr. is still stuck with Sr.”
Martin has raced at Dakar since 2009, primarily for his own team with support from MKR Technology. In 2017, he and his Renault led the Truck class after two stages before a fire knocked him out of contention, though he was able to rebound with a pair of stage wins. He joined his son at Team de Rooy for the 2022 Rally and placed sixth in class.
He is a two-time class winner each in the Morocco Desert Challenge and Rallye du Maroc, the latter of which is the upcoming leg of the World Rally-Raid Championship. In 2016, he finished third at the Silk Way Rally.
Mammoet, a Dutch heavy lifting company, maintained a close partnership with him and his team for over a decade, and co-sponsored his Team de Rooy truck alongside Eurol while Mitchel used TDR’s standard green Petronas livery.
“We’ve had a great, long-term relationship with Mammoet for fifteen years,” Martin added. I am very grateful for everything that partnership achieved for us. We reached this level together with Mammoet. We have had a fantastic partnership with Mammoet. Together, we’ve had some memorable successes, but also disappointments. In all these circumstances, the partnership continued in perfect harmony. After that long period of fifteen years, I totally understand Mammoet’s decision to go in a new direction.
“Fortunately, we have found a new main sponsor in Eurol. I am delighted with the confidence of this company. Eurol has been a loyal partner of our team for eight years. Now they will be our main sponsor and lend its name to the team.
“Eurol’s support enables our team to fulfil our ambitions. Our team with dozens of volunteers has again received the appreciation it deserves. We have already been working together for eight years in the field of testing and developing of lubricants. That technical partnership will continue in the coming years and be extended where possible.”
Credit: Frederic Le Floch / DPPI
Jeroen Overduin, Mammoet’s marketing head, commented, “After a fantastic and intensive partnership over the past fifteen years, it’s time for Mammoet to embark on a new journey and make new choices. In the coming years, our strong brand will become even more visible and be clearly positioned as an innovative market leader in heavy transport and lifting, with a key role for teamwork, cutting edge technology and safety first. A recent choice which totally reflects this is our huge involvement in the Formula One Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort as event supplier, where we will not only provide hospitality for our clients, but will also be at work with our mobile cranes.
“On behalf of Mammoet, I would like to thank Martin, Mitchel and the entire team for helping to strengthen our brand with their formidable teamwork and obviously wish them every success for the future.”
Mitchel became the youngest driver to compete in the Dakar Rally when he débuted in 2019 at the age of sixteen. Although race rules require competitors to be eighteen, he was granted a waiver as his position was mechanic and co-driver to his father. He piloted his own truck in 2021 to a nineteenth followed by a tenth the next year.
Outside of Dakar, Mitchel mainly competes in local events like the Eurol Hellendoorn Rally.
“Both Mitchel and Martin van den Brink have shown in the past year that they are very competitive with the Team De Rooy Iveco trucks,” said Eurol managing director Martijn Pfeiffer. “This perfectly matches our ambition to develop lubricants that ensure the best performance under all circumstances. We are also delighted to support Mitchel, as the youngest Dakar driver ever and a member of Talent TeamNL, in his rally career.”