The 38th Dakar Rally is complete. Over two weeks, covering more than 9,000km, Team Sugawara has endured it all – suffocating desert heat, torrential El Niño rains, treacherous mountain passes and headache-inducing altitudes. The payoff – a seventh successive win in their classification.
In the end 218 vehicles (84 motorcycles, 23 quads, 67 cars and 44 trucks) managed to finish the rally, from an original field of 347. That's not too bad compared to previous years. Certainly the weather played its part – cancelled stages, shortened courses, and the prevalence of rally-style roads rather than the dunes of the Atacama. Perhaps in the end it was a slightly easier rally than previous years. Of course, that's 'easier' relatively speaking. There are plenty of weary guys in Rosario who will tell you it was far from easy.
The final stage of the Dakar Rally is often superfluous, with the outcome largely decided in the desert. This year was no different. The 180km special stage from Villa Carlos Paz to the podium in Rosario had no real bearing on the final results. Team Sugawara crossed the finish line in first and second in the Under 10-litre class, the seventh year in row that they have claimed the title and the third year in a row that the team has accomplished a 1–2 finish in its class.
Hino was the only Japanese manufacturer to enter a team into this year’s rally. With the help of Team Sugawara they have spent the last year improving and developing the Dakar vehicles and the two 500 Series trucks entered this year outperformed everyone's expectations. There were no significant mechanical issues throughout the entire rally and the trucks were keeping pace with larger, faster opposition.
Truck 2, driven by Teruhito Sugawara and navigated by Hiroyuki Sugiura, finished just outside the top 10 in the general standing, in 13th place. Truck 1, driven by Dakar Veteran Yoshimasa Sugawara and navigated by Mitsugu Takahashi finished 31st in the overall truck category.
The trucks arrived at the finish late in the afternoon, but the podium ceremony at the historic Monumento a la Bandera was still packed with spectators. The crowd exploded into cheers as the Hino trucks arrived with the mechanics riding on the roofs.
This was Hino's 25th year of Dakar racing and Hino Motors chairman, Masakazu Ichikawa, who flew over from Japan to share in the celebration, had nothing but praise for the team. "I’d like to acknowledge the team for delivering a solid performance this year again. I get the feeling that Mr. Teruhito can climb even higher, but in any case, I’m very grateful to the entire team and for all the support that we’ve received. Twenty-five years of racing in the Dakar is quite a long history when you think about it, and I’m amazed at how Mr. Sugawara and his team have come together to achieve these results."
Yoshimasa Sugawara, the oldest Dakar Rally participant at 74 years of age, said after the race: "I’m happy to have finished in what ended up being a very challenging rally this year, and I’m also very happy to see so many people cheering us on at the goal. One of the memorable things for me this year was that, for the first time in a long while, we got bogged down and stuck. I’ll continue to race on. I’d like to thank everyone who has supported us."
Meanwhile, Class Champion Teruhito Sugawara has one eye on the future. "This was the 25th anniversary of Hino Motors’ first entry in the Dakar Rally, so I took that to heart as we raced. The truck upgrades that we made have had a definite impact and I feel that we’ve got our rivals by their tails now. We know what we need to do next, so I think this was a great race also in terms of development going forward."
Forza Team Hino! Here’s to doing it all again next year. Only 350 days to go!
The Hino team and Masakazu Ichikawa celebrate.
Yoshimasa Sugawara gets a victory toss.