HINO TEAM SUGAWARA Finishes Dakar Rally 2025 in 13th Place Overall in the Trucks Category Achieves 34th Consecutive Finish

Event

Jan 20, 2025

Hino Motors, Ltd. (Hereafter "Hino." HQ: Hino, Tokyo. President: Satoshi Ogiso) entered their HINO 600 series truck as HINO TEAM SUGAWARA (Director: Teruhito Sugawara, General Manager: Satoshi Ogiso) in Dakar Rally 2025 which ran from January 3 thru 17, 2025 in Saudi Arabia. The team finished at 13th place overall in the trucks category. This event handed Hino its 34th consecutive finish since it made its first entry in 1991 as the first Japanese commercial vehicle maker to start in the rally.

In addition, by completing the event, driver and team representative Teruhito Sugawara has tied the record of 20 consecutive finishes held by his father, Yoshimasa Sugawara, who retired from Hino Team Sugawara in 2019.

 

 

For Dakar Rally 2025, the team made improvements to further improve their truck's reliability to make sure that it can stay in the race, and developed a truck designed to minimize lost time as much as possible. However, the truck suffered problems with its transfer starting in the eighth stage which persisted up until the final stage. Even then, thanks to the hard work of the mechanics and the excellent teamwork of the three crew members, the team was able to overcome this major problem and race their truck to the finish line.

For the team, this race was a first-hand reminder of why it is called "the most grueling race in the world," and once again gave them a real sense of the intensity and depth of the race.

Driver and Team director: Teruhito Sugawara
We would like to express our gratitude to all those who have supported and cheered us on this participation. I ran the last SS with that feeling. There were a lot of things, but I think it was a good experience for the whole team, as the mechanics did their best in the cold.

■ Navigator: Hirokazu Somemiya
Last night, with 20km to go, the transfer broke and got stuck, the time was over and the time control was already closed. After checking with the organizers, we went directly to the pavement after the repair and returned. This time, the problems were concentrated in the second half, and thanks to the hard work of the mechanics, we managed to finish the race. I feel that the overall strength of the team as a whole is definitely improving.

■ Navigator and Mechanic: Yuji Mochizuki
Last night was difficult, but after returning to the bivouac, the mechanics worked hard to make repairs in time, and I was able to start the race. I am an employee of Hino Motors, and I am grateful that I was able to continue the activities of Dakar under difficult circumstances.

■ Head of Development: Takuma Tsuchiya, Dakar Challenge Group, Technical Strategy & Engineering Management Div.
In this race, we were able to successfully complete the race despite major vehicle problems. We would like to thank all team members for their hard work and passion, as well as our sponsors for their support and warm encouragement.
We will continue to further refine our technology, create cars with superior QDR, and strengthen our team. We look forward to your continued support and encouragement.

 

 

With the aim of helping employees grow and flourish, three employees-- Soichiro Kashiwaya from Aomori Hino Motor, Soken Sho from Minami Kanto Hino Motor, and Chifumi Uehara from Nagano Hino Motor--were selected from domestic dealerships in an open screening process to join the team as mechanics.

Even when the transfer broke and it seemed that there was nothing more they could do about it, all team members demonstrated the high level of their technical skills and assembled a new transfer by selecting, replacing, and welding parts that they were able to disassemble or reuse, which ultimately proved to be a major contribution to the truck finishing the race.

Additionally, team manager Monma Takayuki provided support to help team members demonstrate their abilities even under unforeseen circumstances and helped create a good team environment.

■ Mechanic: Soichiro Kashiwaya, Aomori Hino Motors
I quickly got used to the site and had no problems with the work, but it was cold and difficult on rainy nights. The second half of the game was hectic.

■ Mechanic: Soken Sho, Minami Kanto Hino Motors
I got busy around the rest day, and I realized once again that this is the Dakar Rally. It feels like it started with a transfer and ended with a transfer.

■ Mechanic: Chifumi Uehara, Nagano Hino Motors
The Dakar Rally was tougher than I had imagined. I think it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, both good and bad. I really wanted to run without any trouble.

■ Team Manager: Takayuki Monma
There were too many things in the Dakar Rally, but I'm really glad that everyone was able to finish in good spirits. There were times when I thought I couldn't do it anymore, but I think it was thanks to our teamwork that we were able to overcome it without giving up until the end.

 

 

End of release

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