The HINO 500 Series Trucks Finish All Competitive Stages and Arrive at Santiago.

Both Trucks Finish the Rally, with Car 2 Coming in at 19th Overall and Winning its 4th Straight Championship in the Under 10-litre Class
Car 1 Coming in at 31st Overall and 4th in the Class.

On January 19, the final competition stage for the Dakar Rally 2013 was held between La Serena and Santiago in Chile, with the goal being set in the city of Santiago. This brings to an end the 14 days of racing in 14 stages over a total distance of about 8000km. This day, contestants traveled 122km to the south on a liaison from their bivouac in La Serena, and raced on a 346km SS that was set in the hills near the Pacific coast. However, the first 111km of this SS was followed by a 220km neutral zone where contestants would not be clocked, until they reached the last 15km where they would be clocked again, essentially making this SS only 126km long. The road surface consisted of hard gravel that presented some high-speed segments, particularly in the first half. The SS was basically such that it was difficult for contestants to earn big time differences over the competition, which gave it more an air of an obligatory race of the final day. The start of the SS was delayed by 1 hour and 10 minutes as low lying clouds over La Serena kept the race monitoring helicopters grounded.

HINO TEAM SUGAWARA, which entered this race with two HINO 500 Series trucks, delivered a solid performance on this last segment. Car 2 piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura, was the 28th to start, finished the first half at 33rd, and finished the SS at 25th overall and 2nd in the Under 10-litre class. Car 1 piloted by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Katsumi Hamura finished the SS at 44th overall and 6th in the class. The trucks then traveled a 158km liaison to arrive at the Parc-Fermes (vehicle storage area) built in Parque O’Higgins, a park in the city of Santiago, several minutes after 7pm. This brings the accumulated rankings for Car 2 to 19th overall and top in the Under 10-litre class with a time difference of 8 hours 13 minutes and 13 seconds over the runner up, giving HINO TEAM SUGAWARA its fourth straight championship in this class. Car 1 came in at 31st overall and 4th in the class, and was also able to showcase the superiority of HINO 500 Series medium duty trucks to the world. This day, all vehicles remained stored at the Parc-Fermes, awaiting subsequent announcement of official results from the organizers. On January 20, a goal ceremony will be held in the city of Santiago, completing all events that have been scheduled for Dakar Rally 2013.

Yoshimasa Sugawara: This Dakar Rally fell short of expectations for me partly because there were a couple of canceled stages, and also because we couldn't drive at full capacity due to rising water temperatures and other problems. But I do think we've been able to fulfill our mission of testing the new Car 1.

Katsumi Hamura: It was a tough fight for us right off the start because a variety of problems were always on our minds, including high water temperatures. But once we resolved these issues in the second half, we were able to race pretty well. It's beyond words for me personally, because my previous experience here in 2010 ended in withdrawal from the race.

Teruhito Sugawara: The course today was really bad, and particularly difficult for trucks because it was full of turns that were too tight and roads between tree groves that were too narrow. That said, my feeling of this year's Dakar Rally overall is that we've been able to race a better race than we ever have in the past, and I also think we've reached the limits of this truck in terms of competitive rankings. Looking back now, the SSs were so short and it felt like only half of what I've become accustomed to in the Dakar Rally.

Hiroyuki Sugiura: This was the first class championship for me so I'm just very happy about that. But I also felt how quick our rivals were, and I think we would have been able to put up a better fight if we had the opportunity to compete over longer distances and more difficult courses.

*Rankings at the time of this writing may be adjusted afterwards.

For the latest rankings, please visit the official site.

Stage ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-14/rankings/stage-trucks.html#ancre

Overall ranking
https://www.dakar.com/dakar/2013/us/stage-14/rankings/overall-trucks.html#ancre

ROUTE MAP

PHOTOS

*The HINO vehicle referred in this news in relation to the rally is specially designed, tuned and modified for the Dakar Rally, and most of its specifications are different from those of the HINO vehicles sold in the market unless otherwise specifically mentioned.