Hino and Team Sugawara have continued to make motorsport history with its sixth successive under 10-litre class victory at the 2015 Dakar Rally.
Father and son team drivers, Yoshimasa and Teruhito Sugawara, came in second and first positions, respectively, for the second year running. Their results placed Teruhito in 16th and Yoshimasa 32nd overall for trucks, from a field of 43.
Seventy-three-year-old Yoshimasa Sugawara is continuing to make records of his own, with a total of 33 consecutive Dakar entries. Yoshimasa remains the oldest competitor at the Dakar.
Team Sugawara took first and second positions in the under-10 litre category in stage 3, where it remained for the following 10 stages. “Compared to races up to last year where we've been just pushing our trucks to the limit, I think we've taken a huge step forward in that the truck feels like it can do more, and that there is more room for performance upgrades,” Teruhito Sugawara said.
This year the Dakar covered 9,000 kilometres over 13 stages across Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, presenting a range of terrain including sand dunes, harsh deserts and mountains.
The team's two trucks, both loosely based on the medium duty Hino 500 Series, use an 8.9-litre engine with Hino's direct injection system, which was proven at last year's Dakar.