DAKAR Rally 2017 - Members

A select team of individuals who carry the name and hopes of the Hino brand

Hino Motors has teamed up with Team Sugawara to enter two HINO500 Series trucks in Dakar Rally 2015. HINO TEAM SUGAWARA is led by Yoshimasa Sugawara, who has a Dakar Rally-record 32 consecutive entries under his belt, and his son Teruhito Sugawara. Team members include a mechanic and navigators who have the full confidence of the Sugawaras, as well as a mechanic sub-leader who plays a critical role in production processes with his expert skills, a crew of expert mechanics chosen from applicants from Hino dealers nationwide, and an engineer who will be responsible for tuning the computers on the trucks' electronically controlled engines during the rally. In addition, dealerships in the countries where the rally will be held have set up truck servicing bases where the trucks will undergo servicing immediately prior to racing. The entire Hino group has come together as a team to take on this challenge.

Yoshimasa Sugawara

Yoshimasa Sugawara

Team director and driver of Car 1

Chairman, Japan Racing Management Co., Ltd.

Born May 31, 1941 (Otaru, Hokkaido)

After numerous races in Japan and expeditions including a trans-Sahara Desert run, Yoshimasa started in the Paris-Dakar Rally for the first time in 1983 (age 41) in the Motorcycle category. He then raced in the Cars category for seven events, and has been racing HINO500 Series trucks since 1992. He has had six second-place finishes in the Trucks category, and won seven championships in the Under 10-litre Class. He holds the Dakar Rally record for 33 consecutive starts. His records for Most Consecutive Finishes in the Dakar Rally at 20 Finishes and Most Consecutive Entries in the Dakar Rally at 33 Entries were recognized in Guinness World Records 2016.
Teruhito Sugawara

Teruhito Sugawara

Driver of Car 2

President, Japan Racing Management Co., Ltd.

Born July 13, 1972 (Minato-ku, Tokyo)

Teruhito Sugawara, Yoshimasa Sugawara's second son, first joined the Dakar Rally team in 1998 as a mechanic, and subsequently navigated for his father. During this time, he also gained racing experience in off-road races in Japan, as well as in Rally Mongolia. In 2003, he raced a HINO500 Series truck to a Trucks category win in the Pharaoh Rally in Egypt. He began racing alongside his father in a two-truck lineup in the Dakar Rally in 2005, and won his first championship in the Under 10-litre Class in 2007. His 2014 win was his seventh straight championship in the Class.