Hino Motors to enter the 2008 Dakar Rally aiming at its 18th consecutive course finish and a victory in the under 10-liter class

Hino Motors, Ltd. ("Hino") will participate in the camion (truck) division of the Dakar Rally (commonly known as the Paris-Dakar), the most grueling off-road race in the world, which is scheduled to start on January 5th, 2008. With two medium-duty trucks "Hino FT", Hino is aiming at completing the course for the 18th consecutive year and a victory in the under 10-liter cubic capacity production truck class.

Hino will enter this coming rally as "HINO TEAM SUGAWARA" by thoroughly supporting Team Sugawara led by Yoshimasa Sugawara, who is looking to further improve his world record of 25 consecutive entries and 19 consecutive completions in the Dakar Rally. From designing and building the race vehicle to dispatching six mechanics selected from among Hino group employees and nationwide dealers, this will be a vehicle-focused team effort by Hino.

In 1991, Hino became the first Japanese truck manufacturer to participate in the Dakar Rally and, since then, it has set new records for both consecutive entries and completions of the race. Furthermore, in 1997, Hino achieved a brilliant feat of placing unprecedented first, second and third overall in the camion division. Hino always completed the course in the Paris-Dakar, which is said to be the world’s most grueling rally event, and has achieved high rankings through tough competition with other monster camions.

Hino will continue to demonstrate reliability and durability of the vehicles through Dakar Rally, and at the same time challenge itself, so as to improve its record and to take a great leap from Hino in Japan to Hino in the world.

Photo:	Hino FT that won a victory in the under 10-liter cubic capacity class at the 2007 Dakar Rally.

Daily on-site reports will be presented on the company website (http://www.hino.co.jp/) during the event (January 5 to 20, 2008) (in Japanese only). Don’t miss it!

(Reference material)


- Overview of the 2008 Dakar Rally

Organizer ASO (Amaury Sports Organization) Schedule Start: January 5, 2008 (Lisbon, Portugal) Finish: January 20, 2008 (Dakar,Senegal) Countries transited Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal (4 countries) Total distance About 10,000km According to an announcement by the organizer, the distance of the special "SS" stage will exceed 6,000 km at the next event, which is scheduled to be the longest of the events held over the last several years.

Others

Change in the class designation for the camion division In the past, the camion (truck) division had only two categories; trucks with less than 10-liter cubic capacity and the overall truck class. However, the next event will be newly categorized as follows: Hino FT belongs to the less than 10-liter cubic capacity production truck class.

- Team composition

Team name	HINO TEAM SUGAWARA
Vehicle	2 Hino FTs
Division to enter	Camion division
Composition	Driver: Yoshimasa Sugawara Navigator: Katsumi Hamura Yoshimasa Sugawara (age 66) will be the driver of truck #1 and Katsumi Hamura will assist again this year as his navigator. Yoshimasa Sugawara continues to set unprecedented records, including 25 consecutive entries and completions for 19 consecutive years in the Paris-Dakar. He also has six second-place wins in the camion division (overall) and seven first-place wins in the cubic capacity classes . Driver: Teruhito Sugawara Navigator: Seiichi Suzuki Teruhito Sugawara, the second son of the driver of truck #1,Yoshimasa, won the 2003 Pharaoh Rally (Egypt), the first Japanese national to take the honor in the camion division. He made his Paris-Dakar debut as a driver in 2005. His navigator this year will again be Seiichi Suzuki. Yasushi Nakamura, Hino Motors, Ltd. Junpei Morita, Hino Motors, Ltd. Eiji Wakabayashi, Chiba Hino Motors, Ltd. Kazuto Sugimoto, Fukui Hino Motors, Ltd. Kimihiro Takekawa, Nagano Hino Motors, Ltd. Mitsuhiro Urabe, Kagawa Hino Motors, Ltd. Six mechanics will be dispatched from the Hino Group to support the Hino FTs at each base camp. Four of them are selected from among nationwide sales companies and have HS-1 qualifications, the very highest qualifications for mechanics at Hino.

- History of Hino in the Dakar Rally

Hino first participated in the Dakar Rally as a Japanese truck manufacturer in 1991. It took second place overall in the camion division in 1994 and the same again for the second time the following year. It reinforced the team structure beginning in 1996 with the aim of winning the overall championship and went on in 1997 to achieve a brilliant feat of placing unprecedented first, second and third in the camion division. It continued later to show itself to be a top team in the camion division, winning second place overall in this division three times. In addition it won seven straight victories in under 10-liter cubic capacity class of the camion division established from 1996 to 2002. After that this class was disestablished for two years. However, when the class was reestablished at the 2005 and 2007 events, Hino scored victories again.

Cumulative total	Year	Route	Distance (km)	Vehicle type	Result (Camion Division /Under 10 Liter class)
17	2007	Lisbon - Dakar	7,915	Hino FT	9th, 13th/Winner (only the winner was awarded)
16	2006	Lisbon - Dakar	9,043		5th, 7th/ NA
15	2005	Barcelona - Dakar	8,956		2nd, 6th/ Winner (only the winner was awarded)
14	2004	Clermont - Ferrand - Dakar	10,411		5th/ NA
13	2003	Marseille - Sharm El Sheikh	8,602		5th/ NA
12	2002	Arras - Madrid - Dakar	9,440		3rd/ Winner (7th consecutive victory in this class)
11	2001	Paris - Dakar	10,873		2nd/ Winner
10	2000	Paris - Dakar - Cairo	7,880		5th/ Winner
9	1999	Granada - Dakar	9,441		4th/ Winner
8	1998	Paris - Granada - Dakar	10,570		2nd/ Winner
7	1997	Dakar - Agades - Dakar	8,051		Winner, 2nd, 3rd/ Winner, 2nd, 3rd (a record first in the Camion division)
6	1996	Granada - Dakar	7,579		6th,11th/ Winner, 2nd
5	1995	Granada - Dakar	10,067		2nd/ NA
4	1994	Paris - Dakar - Paris	13,398		2nd/ NA
3	1993	Paris - Dakar	8,877		6th/ NA
2	1992	Paris - Sirte - Cape Town	13,015		4th,5th, 6th, 10th/ NA
1	1991	Paris - Tripoli - Dakar	9,186		7th, 10th, 14th/ NA (participated as the first Japanese truck manufacturer)