Hino has claimed its 10th consecutive win in the gruelling Dakar Rally, held this year in Peru.
Competing in 10 stages over 12 days, Hino Team Sugawara’s Car 2 pilots Teruhito Sugawara and Katsumi Hamura were victorious in the Under 10.0-litre category, and finished ninth overall, beating larger rivals to the line.
An unfortunate problem saw Hino’s Car 1 crewed by Yoshimasa Sugawara and Ahito Sakurai withdraw in the early stages of the rally.
Sugawara is the Guinness World Record holder for Most Consecutive Entries (35) and Most Consecutive Finishes (20) and was understandably disappointed with his second successive retirement.
Hino Australia’s Head of Customer and Brand Dimitri Andreatidis congratulated the team on its success.
“Once again, Hino demonstrated its reliability by delivering a 10th successive class victory, which is an incredible result given that only 34 per cent of trucks actually finished the rally,” he said.
Both of the Hino Dakar Rally 500 Series vehicles used an enhanced version of the Hino A09C 6 cylinder engine, with the production version available as an option in the 500 Series Wide Cab trucks in Australia.
The two trucks that competed were powered by 8,866L direct injection turbocharged and intercooled engine matched to a six speed direct drive gearbox with secondary transmission, two speed transfer and a part time four-wheel drive (4WD) feature in Car 1 and full time 4WD in Car 2.
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