HINO TEAM SUGAWARA fielded their modified racing truck in Rally Mongolia 2013 and finished 3rd in the 4-wheel division racing alongside cars. This gave the team a solid confirmation of the truck's performance improvements as they prepare for the next Dakar Rally.

Rally Mongolia 2013, which was held from August 11 to 18, was met with relatively less inclement weather compared to last year and contestants were able to complete the entire scheduled race without much event. The HINO 500 Series truck piloted by Teruhito Sugawara and Hiroyuki Sugiura broke out to a great start, finished the 3rd stage in the top spot in the 4-wheel division, and subsequently fought fiercely for the podium against other teams, including contestants in the motorbike division. The team sees the Rally Mongolia as its testing grounds for evaluating new features it incorporates in the truck, and Teruhito Sugawara was eager to "find out what kind of time we can make on this truck and its higher levels of performance." Ultimately, the team did not encounter any notable issues and finished the rally with a solid confirmation of the truck’s performance.

Driver Teruhito Sugawara had this to say about the performance evaluations carried out in Rally Mongolia 2013.

"There were 3 points that we wanted to verify in this rally, the truck's mobility gained from its higher engine output, suspension settings, and improvements in the truck's terrain traversing performance gained from changes made to tire specs. What effect the 10% increase in engine output would have was of particular interest for the team leading up to the rally.

From day-one, we noticed these effects in a variety of situations, and got a good feel of the truck’s improved terrain traversing performance. All three of these elements are directly related to the basics of vehicular performance, i.e., "drive, turn, and stop" and it was truly a great accomplishment for the team that we were able to reduce our time by nearly 10%. This confirmed that this was undoubtedly the largest leap in performance over any of the upgrades that we have made on the trucks over the past few years.

Dakar Rally 2014 falls on the third and final year of the 3-year project that we have laid out, so we are committed to further maturing our truck based on the findings made in Rally Mongolia and preparing ourselves to achieve high rankings in the Dakar Rally."

Rally Mongolia 2013 Overview

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Yoshimasa Sugawara Wins Rally Mongolia 2013 in the Jimny Class

This year again, Yoshimasa Sugawara entered the Rally Mongolia as a private entrant in the Jimny Class and won his 4th straight class championship. Here is what he had to say.

"I had the chance to see the HINO 500 Series in action during the rally. It seems that it made it to several checkpoints in first place so I was pleasantly surprised at how faster the truck had become. This year, development engineers from Hino Motors actually came to Mongolia before the rally to conduct various tests with the team. That the team and developers were able to share a common vision for the actual truck in a real-life setting was definitely a step in the right direction. It's also exciting because I get the sense that these interactions will become more in-depth moving forward.

As for myself, the Jimny I drove experienced no breakdowns or tire flats, so I was able to finish the race with almost no errors to speak of. This race was quite a difficult one (judging from how the other entrants were doing), so I think this was great training for me. Since our racing truck is now faster than before, I am preparing myself to deliver a solid performance in the next Dakar Rally."