Hino Bags Award in Mid-Sized Category in Dakar Rally
Published On Jan 27, 2016
It is the 25th consecutive finish for Hino Trucks from Japan, in the 2016 edition of the South American Dakar Rally—an annual cross country race. The 'Hinos' secured 13th (Teruhito Sugawara and Hroyuki) and 31st (Yoshimasa Sugawara and Takahashi Mitsugo) positions in a race competed by 41 trucks that spawned a massive 9217 km. Altogether, 56 trucks took part in the global racing event which took off in Buenos Aires on the January 3 and ended in Rosario, Argentina on January 16.
Team Sugawara, racing with two all-wheel drive Hino 500-series trucks, registered a 100% finishing record once again. The two vehicles have fought all the way through to the finish mark in every race they had attended. The team clinched a 1-2 win in the category of below 10-liters capacity engines, third time in a row and seventh time in overall. Both the machines were wired with Hino 9-liter Common Rail A09C-T1 turbo-inter cooled engines, generating 630 hp of power and a mammoth torque of 2255 Nm.
Some other acclaimed competitors which came out with a 100% finishing streak included HAF, Kamaz, Scania, Liaz and Merceds-Benz. Other competitors included MAN, Iveco, Tatra, Ginaf, Renault and Maz trucks. “We are pleased and proud at yet another display of outstanding reliability and durability by these two Hino trucks in the toughest regular test for this type of vehicle in open competition in the world,” said the Vice President of Hino South Africa, Ernie Tratmann. He went on to add, “The two, four-wheel drive Hino 500-series trucks entered by Hino Team Sugawara were once again the only representatives from the Japanese truck industry to participate in this two week marathon across some of the world's most desolate regions. The strong performance also served to underline Hino's competitive spirit and technological resource.”
This year marked the eight consecutive year where the event was hosted in South America. Earlier editions took place in Africa, until in 2008, the event was canceled due to terror threats.
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