The Polish 18-year-old leapfrogged into first place during the last, 14th stage of the rally, from Al Hofuf to Dammam in Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Ahead of Sunday’s final stage, Goczał was second in the general standings, trailing Lithuania’s Rokas Baciuška by just over 3 minutes.
A hand injury picked up during stage 13 had seemed to all but end his hopes of winning the 2023 Dakar Rally.
However, with Baciuška enduring a problem-ridden day, the Polish rookie managed to wipe out the deficit for a famous victory, the sportowefakty.pl website reported.
Even though he got his driving licence just weeks before the Dakar Rally and was the youngest-ever participant of the event, Goczał impressed right from the start, news outlets reported.
He won the prologue and three other stages.
Poland’s third Dakar Rally winner
Goczał became the third Polish winner of the Dakar Rally, after Rafał Sonik and Dariusz Rodewald.
Sonik won the 2015 rally in the quad category, while Rodewald was a mechanic on the winning Dutch truck teams in 2012, 2016 and again this year.
Goczał, whose co-driver was Spain’s Oriol Mena, comes from a family of motor-racing enthusiasts.
His father Marek and uncle Michał also competed in the 2023 Dakar Rally, finishing third and seventh in the SSV class respectively, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, sportowefakty.wp.pl, polskieradio24.pl, dakar.com