Hino has claimed yet another under ten litre class win in the gruelling Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, clinching the class honour for the 12th consecutive time.
For the second consecutive year, the Hino 500 Series was again piloted by driver and team director Teruhito Sugawara, and navigated by Hirokazu Somemiya and Yuji Mochizuki taking 12th outright in the truck division of the desert marathon.
The 2021 Dakar was the 30th consecutive time Hino has contested it, since becoming the first Japanese manufacturer to enter in 1991.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team only entered one Hino 500 Series in this year’s Dakar, and the support team was scaled back considerably with only minimal testing able to take place.
Starting in Jeddah, the 2021 rally event covered 8009 kilometres, of which 4767 kilometres were competitive Special Stages.
In the 403km SS3 based out of Wadi Ad-Dawasir in the southern part of Saudi Arabia, saw the Hino Team Sugawara truck suffer a rollover on a dune 137-km into the stage.
All three crew members were unharmed and were able to continue after another team helped them put the truck back on its wheels.
They ultimately finished the stage in 26th place, and dropped back to 18th outright.
Over the remaining stages, they delivered consistent results to climb up the standings to finish in 12th while also clinching victory in the Under 10-litre class.
Driver Teuhito Sugawara expressed his gratitude to the team after another gruelling Dakar Rally:
“The biggest issue this time was the rollover and the emergency repair to continue the competition.
“I’m sorry for the rollover, but thanks to everyone’s efforts, we were able to come this far.”
Powering the Hino Dakar Rally truck is an enhanced version of the Hino A09C 6 cylinder engine, the production version of which is available in the 500 Series Wide Cab trucks in Australia.
The truck also features full-time 4WD and an 8,866 litre direct injection turbocharged and intercooled engine, which is matched to a six speed manual transmission.
