Hino Team Sugawara (Teruhito Sugawara, Katsumi Hamura, and Hiroyuki Sugiura) competed in the Rally Mongolia 2009 held from the 3rd to the 10th of August, using the most recently re-engineered Hino 500 Series vehicle to prepare for the Dakar 2010. Major changes were made which directly influenced the rally time -- the radiator fan was changed to an electric fan, an oil cooler was added to the cooling system, the differential gear was re-engineered to address the trouble encountered during the Dakar 2009, and the shock absorber was changed to enhance rough road drivability. Major improvements in performance were expected from all these revisions.

The route this time extended 3,318 kilometers, including a route over the mountain with an altitude of 3,000 meters, and another in the sunbaked Gobi Desert. Although the overall distance was shorter, conditions were similar to those of the Dakar Rally; one could even refer to this course as a virtual Dakar Rally. It therefore became an optimal way for the Hino 500 Series to obtain top results at the next Dakar Rally, by collecting the rally-related data.

Although the suspension movement was effected favorably by changing the shock absorbers, it tended to overheat due to a lack in electric fan capacity. As a result, the drivers were forced to restrict driving the vehicle at full throttle, and cautious driving became unavoidable. They cleared the route schedules during the middle phase of the rally, thanks to the relatively lower ambient temperature due to bad weather. While other vehicles encountered troubles towards the end of the rally, it overtook other vehicles and finished the rally marking 6th * overall and 3rd in the 4-wheel (cars and trucks) Division. Based on these results, the team will prepare for the Dakar 2010 by further improving areas of malfunction they discovered this time.

* The overall result meant the rank based on all entrants (41 units) consisting of motorcycles, cars(4-wheel vehicles), and trucks. The race result was considered a reference, as the major objective of this rally was to perform test driving of the vehicle for the Dakar 2010.